Successors to the Blue Spirit
by Violent Vi Rebooted
Summary: Sixteen years after the Fire Nation's defeat in the Battle of the Black Sun, the nation is destroyed, its people enslaved and scattered to serve their cruel captives. The Blue Spirit has been captured and its up to his niece and his twins to save the Fire Nation exiles' last hope and perhaps the world. However, history has a way of repeating itself.
1. Prologue

**Successors to the Blue Spirit:** **Prologue  
** **By Violent Vi**

* * *

 _ **A/N** :_ It has been a decade since I last posted anything on FFN.

Since then, I acquired a couple degrees, a career, and a daughter who just entered preschool. Wild me traded in my '03 Suzuki GXSR race bike for an SUV...Wild partying for pretend tea parties and Disney movie marathons.

In that time, I lost my old email account and the passwords. Thus, I restarted my account under the name Violent Vi Rebooted. It's the same Violent VI that posted over a decade ago. Just a little older, fatter (try keeping the weight down after having a kid), and starting to get a few grey hairs on my head. For now I intend to finish my stories. Maybe afterward, I hope to start, and hopefully finish some more.

In short, it's me. I am not stealing anyone stories...just trying to finish stories I left hanging unfinished for over a decade.

If you wish to see my old profile, search for Violent Vi.

Thank you. Let's get on with the story.

* * *

 _Introduction  
_ _Rise of the Fire Nation Remnants: How philosophical differences altered history and shaped the Second Elemental War  
_ _Kwan Bo, Divus Guan Chair, History Department, Yuncheng University_

Traditionally, historians agreed that the Battle of the Black Sun marked the end of the Hundred Year War, later known as the First Elemental War, between the Fire Nation and the Alliance of the Earth Kingdoms and Water Tribes.

Led by Avatar Aang, the last of the Air Benders, a small strike team of Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe forces used submersibles to sneak into the harbor of the Fire Nation capital, struck down the Fire Lord, capture its leadership, and force an end to the war.

The battle was known for its savagery. With less than three hundred men and perfect timing, the Avatar-lead forces killed over ten thousand Fire Nation citizens. However, the battle was not without its cost.

In the end, the Avatar was killed along with most of his forces. Among the dead included his key lieutenants:

* Katara, daughter of Hakoda, Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe and the Avatar's water-bending master;  
* Hakoda, Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe and Admiral of its fleet;  
* Bato of the Southern Water Trible;  
* Hu; Chieftain of the Foggy Swamp Water Tribes;  
* Smellerbee of the Freedom Fighters;  
* General Kam Tong Chun of Ba Sing Se;  
* Colonel Bao Ji Huan of Omashu; and  
* The Mechanist, Leader of the Exiles at the Northern Air Temple.

Leadership of the Alliance strike team fell to Sokka, the Destroyer. Upon the death of his father, Sokka became the new Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe. Angered by the deaths of his father and sister, Sokka waged a no-holds-barred campaign of destruction against the Fire Nation. Historians agreed that the winners of the battle drank down battle lust and madness in big gulps of blood. It would be the results of this madness that would eventually seed the savagery of the Second Elemental War

Once reinforced by a fleet from the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom land forces, Chieftain Sokka decreed that the Fire Nation will be no more. All Fire Nation citizens would be divided up and banished to the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes where they and their descendants would be slaves for the victors.

Fire bending would be outlaws upon penalty of a slow, painful death.

Lastly, the line of Sozen would be destroyed.

Crown Prince Zuko managed to escape his prison cell literally minutes before his scheduled, public execution. However, Princess Azula would not be so lucky. Angered by Prince Zuko's escape, every indignity was inflicted upon Azula. What was left behind was cast out so the remnants of the Fire Nation could see how far it had fallen. Azula was reduced to a mass of madness by the hand of Sokka the Destroyer of the Fire Nation.

One day, Azula vanished. Many suspected that the princess in her madness cast herself into the boiling waters of Boiling Rock Prison, her boy never to be seen again.

Thee months later, the earth benders of the Earth Kingdom loosened the seals and let the volcanoes of the Fire Nation erupt. Any Fire Nation citizen who avoided capture and did not make it off the island was doomed to perish in the lava flows. The ash hung in the sky for three years choking out the sun. As slaves, those of the Fire Nation starved and many died. Only one of four survived to suffer the lot of slavery. However, in the chaos, a few escaped and hid in the woods, mountains, and wild lands.

At first, the Earth Kingdom was not worried. A few, ragtag survivors living at the edge of starvation posed little threat to peace and the new order.

Soon, the Earth Kingdom learned the hard way that ignoring a smoldering ember was to invite a wild fire in their midst.

The Fire Nation escapees did not forget nor did they forgive. They grew up in a Fire Nation built upon a philosophy that suffering builds strength…that the gods answer their prayers by giving them challenges to make them stronger. They never forgot that they were a proud people and vowed to become strong enough to gain their vengeance.

An Earth Kingdom farmer typically pray for soft, gentle rains that lead to a bountiful harvest. The Fire Nation escapee prayed for strength and embraced challenges. In the end, historian agree, this philosophical difference would one day lead the Fire Nation Remnants to eventually become a powerful empire that would conquer the known world.


	2. Billboard at the Crossroads

**Successors to the Blue Spirit: The billboard at the crossroads  
** **By Violent Vi**

* * *

 _Sixteen (16) years after the Battle of the Black Sun_

The billboard sat at the crossroads to nowhere.

There were a few announcements regarding festivals, chicken-pigs for sale, and upcoming events, but the majority of the space was dedicated to the wanted posters.

The usual posters showing the images of local bad boys who gone too far in the pursuit of fun and coin graced the billboard. However, one image had central billing. The blue and gray visage of a demon leered at all who passed.

To the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, the Blue Spirit was the ultimate demon.

The mysterious masked-figure had robbed from most of the noble and merchant families of the Earth Kingdom. The assassin killed dozens of Earth Kingdom officials and hundreds of merchants who bought and sold slaves. The theft had stolen the ransom of kings many times over. Hundreds of bounty figures who sought the elusive predator only found humiliation at the hands of the laughing _oni_ (demon). Not even the _legendary_ Jun the Bounty Hunter with her shirshu, Nyla, would track down the elusive assassin.

When the Blue Spirit stole the jade crown of the Ba Sing Se, the 52nd King, Kuei, pardoned the old Dai Li and sent them to hunt down the Blue Spirit. Three months later, a shipment of chamber pots arrived with the ashes of the Dai Li mixed with the night soil. According to rumors, the Blue Spirit later paid the Kuei a personal visit and spanked the king with flat side of his swords. Since then, the Earth King kept a dozen guards in his room as he slept.

To the Water Tribes, the Blue Spirit was the unstoppable terror. They feared him as much at their sailors feared that black and white whales that prey upon all other creatures in the water.

Twice, the Blue Spirit graced the Northern Water Tribe by violating their Holy of Holies, the Spirit Shrine.

The first time, the Blue Spirit merely took two vials of water from the Spirit Oasis. The second time, he proved that not even a regiment of determined Northern Water Tribe warriors and elite water benders were capable of stopping him. The world heard the outcry of the Northern Water Tribe upon finding a mask at the Spirit Oasis along with the Spirits of the Moon and Ocean swimming in a fishbowl. A note sat nearby taunting that the next time the Northern Water Tribe talked about exterminating the remnants of the Fire Nation, he would partake of carp sushi.

There were many legends of how the Blue Spirit eluded superior forces and defeated the best of his foes.

Only once was the Blue Spirit defeated.

The Blue Spirit had sought out the life of Sokka the Destroyer during the dark mid-Winter days of the Southern Antarctic. The pair fought. Sokka was grievously wounded by the Blue Spirits. Only the quick response of the Southern Tribe warriors that prevented Blue Spirit's separation of Sokka's head from his body. As much as the Blue Spirit wished to end the life of the man who masterminded the destruction of the Fire Nation, he fled as the defeat of the Blue Spirit would end the hopes of many.

To the slaves who were once Fire Nation citizens and their children, the Blue Spirit was their hero, their avatar, their leader in the quest for freedom and one day vengeance.

Breastfeeding slave mothers would whisper tales of his exploits as their children suckled. In the middle of the night, fathers, exhausted from laboring under the harsh taskmasters, would wake their children and secretly teach them the fighting arts of the disbanded nation in hopes that one day, the children would be worthy of the Blue Spirit's efforts to free them. The Blue Spirit was the living embodiment of an enslaved race's dream of freedom. He was the wild fire that no amount of earth, wind, and water would ever contain. He was their leader in exile.

The world knew of the Blue Spirit. However, only one man knew the identity of the man behind the mask. That man was far too cagey to ever admit to being the most wanted man on this world.

Li Jian waited impatiently for his paternal cousin and twin sister to catch up.

"Uncle would be mad if we're not home by sundown," the fifteen-year-old lad muttered as he contemplated angst and how the world would be better if he could kill all the happy-cheerful people.

"Turn that found upside down and smile, cousin," Li Ying replied.

"What's the matter, brother? Did mommy take away your stuffed monkey-lizard or…"

Lian could not resist the urge taunt her twin.

"Lian, stop it now, or else…"

Li Lian back flipped into a single-arm handstand on her right hand and smiled at her older (by two minutes) brother, "Oophs, got to remember to frown when I'm upside down!"

Ying shook her head at her cousins. Jian and Lian were opposite in temperaments.

Lian was so energetic and bouncy that she could even wear down Aunt Ty, the original bouncy girl.

Jian was so dark, so meh, that he could suck all the fun out of a carnival by walking by in the next district over. Jian was much too like Ying's uncle Li – Far too serious and all too ready to embrace the angst. While he could be as acrobatic as his sister, Jian simply did not do flips for fun. The only fun Jian ever had was practicing his swords, throwing his daggers, fire bending, or pulling a practical joke on some unsuspecting fool. Even when Jian had _fun_ , he did not smile. At best, he had an unnatural smirk that inspired feeling of terror rather than reassurance.

Lian was so pink, bubbly, and bouncy. Her head was seemingly filled by air. She talked about fashion, boys, and auras for hours on end. Half the time, she was upside down, walking on her hands, or hanging from a tree.

The only time the pair ever got along was when an outsider picked on one of them. Otherwise the pair spent their time driving one another nuts.

Ying was their older, by three months, but still older cousin. Being the oldest of her generation, she was tasked with keeping the twins and their twelve, going on thirteen siblings in line.

Ying often wondered how did a downer like Uncle Li ever manage to attract a bubbly, former circus acrobat turned aura reader like Aunt Ty.

A part of her wondered if her aunt and uncle were stuck together in a locked room and left to fester until the unresolved sexual tension spilled over into a relationship filled with snarking and episodes of violent love-hate sex. Ying knew that Uncle Li and Aunt Ty were not officially married until three months before the twins were born. If the twins were not brother and sister, Ying would have predicted on the pair hooking up and ending up as husband and wife. They sure fought like they were a married couple.

For all the weirdness and conflict in the lives of her aunt and uncle, at least the story of how the twins came to be had a happy ending. Ying's origin story was anything but happy.

Lian stuck out her pink tongue, rolled her eyes, and made a circling motion with her left index finger by her ear.

"Jian, I know why you are in a rush…Don't you want to kiss Joo-Wook…Isn't she your… _sunrise_? Don't you miss swirling your tongues together?"

Ying shuddered. Joo-Wook was the ugly girl turned village cart...it seems everyone had a ride on her despite the fat, hairy upper lip, and general lack of hygiene.

Jian took in a deep breath, looked around to ensure that there would be no witnesses. He then threw a small fire blast at his sister.

Lian simply cartwheeled to her left and avoided the blast.

"Temper…temper, Jian." Lian taunted as she deftly avoided the flames.

Jian snapped back, "Take that back little sister. I would rather castrate myself and commit _seppuku_ (ritual suicide via disembowelment) without a second to end my pain rather than kiss that fat pig-cow again."

"Again…" Ying muttered out loud. This was a new development. Her cousin the angst-filled kissing the village cart.

Jian gave his cousin his trademarked "If you speak of it, I will invent new, interesting, and painful ways to torture you for the rest of eternity" glare.

"It was dark, I had some of Uncle Jee's sake, and I though it was Junai!" Jian spat out with venomous tone as he unsuccessfully tried to make the incident go away.

Lian could not resist the golden opportunity and sang out, "Joo-Wook and Jian kissing in a tree, my oh my what a mess it will be. First comes love, forget the marriage, here comes the ugly pig in a baby carriage."

Jian screamed in anger as he threw several blasts at this sister.

Ying quickly swung her right fist into the back of Jian's head and knocked him to the ground.

"Stop it. If an Earth Kingdom patrol saw you, they would lock you up in an exposure cage and place the rest of us on the slave blocks."

Someone had to snap hothead back into reality.

"Besides, didn't uncle tell you that I'm in charge. Remember the _incident_ in Jinhae. If you two want to fight so badly, hold an Angi Kai in the practice chamber back home."

Jian took a deep breath as he looked up at his cousin.

"You are right. Besides, Lian does not stand a chance of winning when we fight in enclosed spaces. Thank you…However…"

"I know…it never happened…except in Lian's imagination," Ying promised. "Now get up off the ground."

Jian stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

Ying hated being the oldest, sometimes. Since she was three months older than the twins, her aunt and uncle expected her to babysit these two when they went into town to get the supplies. If she was Uncle Li, she would have drowned the pair at birth and raised chicken-pigs. At least the chicken-pigs were good for eggs, meat, and milk.

Ying blew an errant lock of hair aside.

Ying looked nothing like her cousins. She inherited the mocha complexion and blue eyes from her sire...some unknown Water Tribe rapist. The only thing she had in common with her cousins was the ability to bend fire. The problem was that no matter how hard she worked, she had to fight the fire to get it to do her will.

Lian was a prodigy with both fire and her bow.

Jian was gifted with fire, dual swords, and thrown weapons.

All Ying seemingly had was an anger-fueled, mean right-hook, and the ability to sputter fire from the ends of her first. It worked but it was unreliable and was not as cool and launching a twenty-five cloth-yard long stream of fire like her uncle could.

 _Damn Water Tribe blood. It interferes with my fire bending._

Ying hated the Water Tribe. Not disliked...not loathed...but actively hated the bastard with all her being.

It was that Water Tribe bastard, Sokka, that exiled and enslaved the populace of the Fire Nation. It was one of the barbarian Southern Water Tribesmen who raped her mother and ensured that Ying would have polluted blood.

Ying remembered that as a child she prayed to Agni that she would ever become some slimy, fish-scaled water-bender. She refused to be near water. At six, she refused to bath knowing that if water ever touched her that she would lose her fire bending powers. At eight, Uncle Li had to drag her out on a boat in the middle of a lake and toss her out before Ying learned to swim.

Ying hated the Water Tribes so much that every night she prayed to Angi to forgive her polluted blood and give her the strength to burn every filthy Southern Water Tribe bastard. She wanted to find _Daddy Dearest_ and introduce him to a painful fire enema.

The thunk of one of Jian's daggers sticking into the billboard snapped Ying out of her dream of hearing Daddy Dearest's screams of pain during his sixteen-hour castration. It was the sixth such dagger impaling the face of another local bandit.

"Scum doesn't deserve to be on the same billboard as the Blue Spirit," Jian spat as he flicked another dagger towards one of the other images. "One day, we will seek out the Blue Spirit and become his apprentice. I will be Bai Hu, the White Tiger of the West…"

"I will be Quin Long, the Azure Dragon of the East," Lian added.

"Together, we will topple the Earth Kingdoms and Water Tribes from their perch," the twin simultaneously chanted as the pair performed an advanced acrobatic fire-bending kata.

"Just whom am I suppose to be…" Ying asked.

The pair looked at one another and nodded.

"Why, you're Xuan Wu, the mysterious Warrior of the North, who with her mean right hook and icy claws, could knock down and unman even the most foolhardy of Water Tribe scum."

 _Damn twin-mode…it's creepy how they could synchronize their speeches. They must have practice sessions to get this good...but there was no way that they could coordinate things so well without some kind of psychic power._

Ying looked at the pair and shook her head. They made it far too easy. They obviously could read each other's mind, but they could not read hers.

"Last one home gets to clean out the pig-chicken coops tomorrow."

The pair of twins started to run do the road. No one wanted that chore.

Suddenly the pair tripped and fell flat on their faces. Ying was riding on the ostrich-horse and sauntered by at a leisurely pace.

"You two have to untie yourselves first. Oh…do not even think of burning the rope. It was on uncle's shopping list. Oh yes, don't forget to drag the cart with you."

Ying imaged that the twin's screams of outrage could be heard all the way in Ba Sing Se. When the twin were busy fighting and screaming at one another, Ying had carefully looped the rope to the twins and tied it off to the Ostrich Horse cart. She could not wait to get home and sip on a lemonade while watching the twins huff and puff as they drag the wagon home.

Sure the twins had talent, but they were still second best to Ying, the best prankster, this side of Ba Sing Se.


	3. Fish Bender

**Successors to the Blue Spirit: Fish bender**  
 **By Violent Vi**

* * *

Today was supposed to be a good day.

Uncle Li was coming home today. Knowing her uncle, he was going to bring a lot of presents for the kids. He always did when he went on one of his month-long trading journeys

For some in-explainable reason, the main who hated tea the most in this district was the best at peddling it.

No one in the family, save for Aunt Ty, Lian, and some mythical elder uncle liked boiled leaf juice. However, the Earth Kingdom's fondness for the stuff guaranteed that Uncle Li had enough in bribe money to pay off the local officials into not investigating the Li family's past.

"Ying, can you and Lian please get the kids to wash up?" Aunt Ty requested. "I have to finish supper. Your uncle is bringing a couple guests with him. Make sure the kids are presentable and on their best behavior."

Ying bit her tongue. Aunt Ty might phrase things in terms of request, but her requests carried just as much power as Uncle Li's commands. Worse, because Aunt Ty could ensure that Uncle Li would sleep on outside with the chicken-pigs if even he back-talked. Being flexible also meant that one could hit harder with the switch. It had been ten years since Ying last felt Aunt Ty's switch on her bottom. She never wanted to experience that again.

"Yes, Aunt Ty."

Ying considered her options for help.

Cousin Jian was busy clearing out the barn and bringing in more food for the incoming animals.

Lian was anything but helpful when bathing the cousins.

Lian would rile up the kids and turn bath time into a water fight. Or worse yet, she will get the little one to act like her…again. Kissing the turtle-ducks was just the start to the madness that she could bring in when asked to help with a simple task.

Just about every time that Ying thought she figured out the limits of Lian's weirdness, Lian would do something so…that the only phase that aptly describes Lian's behavior was Liantic, because lunatic was too underrated. Not even the fish benders under the influence of the moon could be so…liantic.

Lian was exactly like her mother, Ty Li. Both bubble-heads shamelessly flirted with the local merchants when they shopped. They conversed for hours on the colors of people's auras or how puffy the clouds were. Knowing her cousin, Ying could only image Lian trying to fix Ying's aura by paralyzing her and pouring more boiled leaf juice down her throat.

It was not that Lian was stupid. Lian was more than smart enough to master her school lessons, but she was so auntie-like that Lian made everyone around her bonkers trying to figure out how someone like her could maintain the bubble around her head. Lian somehow manage to make other wonder how she could walk, talk, and eat _patbingsu_ (shaved ice with red bean ice cream and candied fruit) all at the same time.

Jian did not need that kind of cooperation from her cousin. She had her own techniques for getting the kids down to the lake for a bath.

However, Jian wondered who uncle was going to bring home.

It was more than idle curiosity.

Next year, Ying and Lian would be of marriage age and in the Earth Kingdom, arranged marriages were the norm. Just because her uncle and aunt supposedly eloped, did not mean that they would not arrange a marriage for their niece or children.

Yin knew that uncle had already receive and politely turned down betrothal offers for herself and her cousin Lian.

It was inevitable.

The Li family had money and presentable, if not beautiful, daughters, but not a noble title. Many other well-to-do families had land, titles, or a strong family lineage, but more-often-than-not were short on coin and long on debts.

Despite being very discreet about the financial success of Uncle Li's tea trading business, the other families in the district knew that the despite the obvious half-breed nature of the Li family, the Li's were wealthy. From helping Uncle Li with the book, Ying knew that uncle held thousands of silver _taels_ in promissory notes issued by two dozen noble families between here and Ba Sing Se. There was no large mansion or expensive parties like other master merchants threw. The family dressed simply, but clothing was well-kept, clean, and free from holes. Despite having no servants, their white kimonos were spotlessly cleaned and pressed.

Everyone knew that he Li and Jee Trading House had the straggle-hold on the most exotic tea-leaves in the western Earth Kingdom. The escaped Fire Nation slaves grew the most exotic tea-leaves in their strongholds. It was merchants, really Fire Nation half-blooded smugglers, who dealt with the so-called savages, and brought the leaves down for sale to the most exclusive tea houses and wealthiest tables in the Earth Kingdom. It was a dangerous trade and only dangerous men like Uncle Li and his partner, Uncle Jee, who had a chance of returning home alive. It was so dangerous that Uncle Li refused to have Jian travel with him until he was sixteen.

 _Too bad Uncle Jee's kids are too young for Lian and I. The other kids have the option of marrying someone that they don't have the hide their fire bending._

Ying and her cousin, Lian, dreaded marriage.

There were a few free First Nation-Earth Kingdom mixed-bloods, by products of the century-long war. However, considering social status and economics, the odds were more likely that both girls would be married to an Earth Kingdom family.

When that happened, both girls know that they could not risk fire bending. It was outlawed and to do so would not only sentence the girls to a slow death by slowly being crushed under stones, but also would result in a mob hunting down her family for birthing a monster.

Fire bending was a capital crime everywhere save for the few enclaves that escaped Fire Nation slaves had set up in the mountains and deep forests. Those that were cause were subject to inventive, slow deaths.

Once Uncle Li had dragged Jian, Lian, and her to an execution of a captured fire bender. He forced them to watch so they would exactly know why it was important to keep the family secret. She remembered biting back the tears and wondering how uncle could be so cruel making the then eleven-year-olds watch the torture and death of a human being.

Later that night, she overheard Uncle Li and Uncle Jee drinking on fortified rice wine reminiscing about the executed fire bender. The three apparently served onboard the same ship. She remembered hearing about a storm that almost capsized the vessel and an old general who loved tea and pao shi.

The next day, the marketplace was awash with rumors how the Fire Nation escapees snuck away the body of the executed bender before it was supposed to be left in the exposure cage. Uncle Li was gone for the next two days and when he returned he burned his clothes.

Ying realized later that uncle was the one who stole the body so it would property be burnt and the ashes scattered as was the Fire Nation's tradition.

Uncle Li risked his life, not for profit, but rather a cause.

Uncle Jee and Uncle Li were the only source for money, medicines, and finished goods that the Fire Nation exiles needed to stay alive in the hidden enclaves. He was their link to what was happening in the outside world. He smuggled message between those still slaving for the Earth Kingdom and those who managed to escape.

He was something more than a half-blood merchant taking advantage of what otherwise would be a curse. Ying figured out that Uncle Li was a former Fire Nation naval officer with enough rank to clash against an unnamed 'monkey-faced' admiral. That was all she knew. Only Uncles Li and Jee as well as their wives knew the whole secret. Trying to find out about their past was like peeking in keyhole and trying to see everything that was going on.

Ying brushed an errant lock of hair out of her blue eyes. Not counting the twins, Ying had to take care of eight cousins, ages four to twelve. Every time, uncle came home, Aunt Ty got pregnant or was pregnant from uncle's prior visit. They were expecting another kid in two months.

It was time to get the herd of rug rats to the water. Ying hid the soap and washcloth in her bag.

She went upstairs and told Lian that they were all heading to the lake.

Lian whooped, "We all going swimming, last one there is a fish bender!"

Fire benders all, at least the ones older than six, none of her cousins wanted to be a fish bender. The little ones were fast, shedding clothing without shame as they ran to the swimming hole. Ying had to trail the kids, stopping to pick up discarded clothing.

"Lian, go ahead and make sure they don't drown before I get there."

"Before you get there?"

Ying shook her head, "Lian, I am going to drown them all myself."

Lian gasped, "And let your aura get dark…never. Besides, I get first pick."

With that comment, Lian gracefully dashed towards the lake and the sound of splashing children.

Ying heard the kids screamed "Ying is a fish bender" as she approached. The fifteen-year-old clenched her right fist and suppressed the urge to bake her cousins.

Ying hated being called Fish Bender.

Her mother was raped and driven insane by one of those Water Tribe barbarians.

Ying was only four when her mother nearly took her along for mother's suicide. Only uncle's quick reaction prevented Ying from being drowned when mother loaded her pocket with rocks and jumped off the bridge. Ying remembered her mother squeezing her and the shock of the cold water. Uncle dove in and manage to drag her out of mother's gasp. They never found mother's body.

Ying suppressed the tears. She hated being the child who her mother hated so much that mother decided to kill her. She tried being good. She tried to master her fire bending lessons. Yet, mother only called her a failure and a bastard's beast.

Being call fish bender hurt the worst since it was Ying's fish bender's blood that made mom hate her so much. Ying hated her dark skin and blue eyes. It was the mark of a freak. Something worse that any freak could ever aspire to be.

Ying then made a quick mental apology to freaks. Some of Aunt Ty's friends were circus freaks and they were nice to Ying and her cousins whenever they stopped by the farmstead.

Ying felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Do not let the past turn your aura grey," whispered Lian. "Father is coming home and soon your aura will be pink again. I can see it."

Ying shook her head. Her aunt and her cousins were always talking about auras and colors. Uncle, Jian and Ying seem to be the only ones who could not read auras. Besides, having a pink aura was not a life goal that Ying would actively pursue.

 _What good was a pink aura when you hated everything you were?_

* * *

Thankfully, uncle did not bring home a husband for either girl.

His guest was some official from Ba Sing Se seeking to purchase some dragon lily tea-leaves for the Earth King's table.

The dragon lily was the rarest of all tea-leaves. Native to only the Fire Nation, the bushes were now all but extinct. The few transplanted bushes were in remote places controlled by the Fire Nation exiles. Even before the fall of the Fire Nation, the bushes were rare. It took three years to cultivate the leaves for harvest and another to prepare them.

The king wanted an ostrich-horse cart load, but all Uncle Li had was one small box. The pair spent hours negotiation the sales. Eventually, the official offered two-hundred twenty-seven silver-hills per _tael_. Jian, Lian, and Ying stood silently behind uncle fetching the sweet plum wine and refreshments as necessary.

The deal was sealed with a drink of _mai tai_ , the legendary fire water that made sake taste like water. Cousin Jian had to help uncle more the inebriated official to the guest room.

"Thank you all," Uncle Li whispered to the teens, "Make sure that the little ones stay out of the way until our guest leaves tomorrow."

The trio went up to the loft. A curtain separated the boys' side from the girls' side of loft. Separate rooms were a luxury in a small house filled with children. The only separate bedroom was the room that uncle and aunt shared with the three youngest kids.

* * *

Ying's mind was far too busy to sleep.

Ying went downstairs, step outside, grabbed a bucket and walked to the well. Tomorrow was laundry day and Aunt Ty would need a lot of water to fill up the kitchen sink.

At the well, Ying removed the cover, and then carefully secured the bucket to the rope before letting the bucket drop. That bucket had a stone weight fixed to the bottom to allow it to sink into the water. Once the bucket was full, Ying started slowly bringing up the bucket.

"Worried?"

Surprised, Ying let the bucket drop bac down the well as she let out a gasp. She turned towards the voice.

It was uncle's gruff voice.

"Don't worry. I am not going to marry you off to some mud flinger. It will slowly kill you both. Having to be someone you are not is perhaps the worst things to do. Promise me that you will never forget who you are and never give up without a fight. As long as you do that, you will be your true self."

Ying was surprised. Uncle was a practical man and not given philosophical discussions.

"Why, uncle?" Ying asked.

Uncle shook his head and exhaled.

"Because I know what it was like to be hated by those you love the most. I still hate myself for not being strong enough to stand up to those who sought to change me. I was so trapped up in trying to please others that I forgot to appreciate the ones who loved me for being me. Come with me, I need to show you some things."

Uncle lead her to the underground room where he taught the kids fire bending.

"When I was sixteen, I lived on the road with my uncle. I had suffered disgrace and was banished. The only way to restore my honor and return home was to hunt down and capture a key enemy leader behind enemy lines. We hid from the Earth Kingdom patrols and pursued our target by posing as refugees. I was seeking a fool's myth that would restore my home and a life that I thought I wanted. I chased that myth for four years and all it brought me was hard lessons and bitter tear."

Ying wanted to ask more questions, but she did not want to break the melancholy spell that made uncle talkative.

"What do you hate the most?" Uncle asked.

Ying's reply was automatic.

"Fish benders," she snarled with seething rage. "I rather drown to my death in all the tea in your warehouse than to bend fish."

"The proper term is water bender," Uncle Li responded calmly.

"Yet, water bending is in your blood. Your father's sister was a powerful water bender. She was perhaps better at water bending than your mother ever was with fire. If your child turns out to be a water bender, would you love your child any less?"

Ying snarled back, "Doesn't matter. I am not a fish bender. I am a fire bender. I will never be a fish bender."

"Yes, you are a fire bender. However, that is no reason to learn from the other styles of bending. I have faced your aunt and nearly died at her hands several times. Ying, I want to attack me with everything you got. Pretend I am your father."

The emotional surge shocked Ying as she threw out one of the most powerful fireballs she had seen in her life.

Uncle merely did a half-turn and knocked it aside as he stepped inside.

"You have to try harder…I swore that you must be trying to freeze me to death. Your aunt always tried freezing me. Maybe there is a water bender inside of you struggling to get free."

Ying never felt so much anger in her life. For a second, she forgot this was a training session and actively attempted to commit her first murder.

"Never…will I…fish bend…" Ying screamed as she gave three quick blasts.

Uncle was calm…too calm. Despite Ying's obvious attempt at killing him, uncle's tone was bland…bored as if he had seen it all before. Ying knew that uncle had more than once killed bandits who tried to rob him on the road.

"Passion…You have it. Fire does rely on passion to fuel. Yet to indulge in passion is to lose control. As long as we are not underwater, we can summon…create fire…also anytime…anyplace. All we must do is create it, fuel it. However, we must also control it. We walk a fine line between being its master or its victim."

Ying watched as her uncle calmly bent her fire blasts around his body and launched them right back at her feet. Ying jumped to the side.

"Good, you remember the golden rule of dodging…to the side. Never dodge in or out since its too easily to give the attack more range. Water seeks to use the enemy's energy against him…like I just used your own fire against you."

Uncle started walking around her in a spiraling circle. Ying kept throwing blows, but every time she did, he merely reversed the directions and avoided her flames. It was no kata that she had seen before.

"Often, there are times when the enemy is too strong, too entrenched to fight head on. This is when you must be like water. Be fluid. Turn when pushed and step in when pulled. Position yourself to make the enemies energies flow around you and turn it back on your foe."

"So, we must be fluid!" Ying exclaimed.

"No!" uncle snapped as he entered into a stance that Ying had associated with the earth benders.

A ring of fire surround uncle's feet. Five tentacles arose above the ring of fire with uncle maintaining a horse stance.

"Attack me," uncle commanded sharply.

Ying threw three quick blasts as she attempted to move within range of her fists. Uncle stood calmly and three of the tentacles grabbed and absorb her fire blasts.

"Yummy…watch this."

Two of the tentacles raced out and wrapped around Ying's ankles. Ying felt the warmth, but uncle had enough control to prevent Ying from being burnt.

Carefully, Ying bowed at the waist towards her uncle acknowledging his victory.

"I learned most of these from fighting your father's sister. You mother was a fire bending prodigy. Despite being two years younger than me, she was always far better than me. It all came naturally to her. I had to work at it. I even hated the fact that she would always upstage me before our father."

Uncle shook his head.

"Talent, however only takes you so far. You mother was talented…worked hard…but she did not master the art of learning from her foes. That was her downfall. That is why in the end they got to her."

Uncle paused for a moment in silent contemplation.

"I have fought against masters of all four elements, steel, and flesh. The reason I am here today is because I learned something from them all. To not learn from others…to dismiss other benders and non-benders is to cut off your right arm just before a duel. What is the goal of a fire bender in battle?"

"To attack without hesitation. Break the opponent's root. Force them to retreat while you advance and dominate the fight." Ying replied automatically.

Uncle snapped into a horse stance and started stomping like he was doing a peasant's jig. Fire erupted from the earth near Ying's feet. Ying kept moving to avoid the flames form burning her feet.

"That I learned form fighting a master earth bender who was perhaps young than Hui."

"Hui's only eleven."

"Yep…she was perhaps the best in the world…she defeated many benders much older than her. She was the one who captured me by using this technique, except she did it with stone instead of flame. She slammed me into the ceiling a few times. If I did not escape jail, I would not be here today."

Ying looked at her uncle in awe. The tricks he did today were new…different from the forms that she and her cousins were taught. Suddenly, something clicked in her head. Uncle knew the identity of the Water Tribe bastard who raped her mother.

"Who is my father?" Ying asked.

Uncle took a deep breath and shook his head…

"No. Cutting your throat will be more merciful than what he would do to you if you encountered him. Giving an unprepared youth a vendetta is the worst thing I could do to you as your uncle."

For a second, Ying was grateful that her complexion hid her blush.

"Then tell me about my father's sister."

Maybe uncle would let things slip out and give her the clue she needed to find, track down, and castrate the bastard.

"You look exactly like her…minus the hair loopies of course. She was a little shorter than you…more stacked…"

At this point, uncle paused and thought a second before continuing.

"She was a she-wolf…Kind to those who needed her help…Death to those who threatened her pack. If she was alive, she would have loved you and wept if she saw the monster your father became."

Uncle's face went blank as his eyes glazed over.

"No one is born a monster. They are made…molded. We make demons in own image. Animals do things to survive. It's not personal…just survival. Monsters are special. Monsters do things because they believe that they are doing the gods' work on this sad world.

"She was as powerful a healer as she was a fighter. If the gods did not place us at opposite ends of the battle field, maybe we could have been friends."

Ying waited a minute as Uncle went silently down memory lane.

"What was her name?" Ying asked.

Uncle stood there for a minute as if he did not hear the question. Ying was about to ask again when uncle gave his answer.

"Katara…her name was Katara."

He looked into her eyes.

"Do not bother searching for her brother. In the Water Tribes, there are a hundred-thousand girls named Katara as there are a million Li's in the Earth Kingdom. Take a seat and relax."

Ying sat and watched as uncle banished the fire.

"We cannot change the past. All we can do is act in the present. Your father stole your mother's spirit and will to live. Do not let righteous anger become the reins that your enemies will use to control you. Anger…passion may give us more raw power, but power without control…Control is infinitely more important than power."

Ying pondered all uncle said.

"What about air? You mentioned you fought against all four elements…Did that mean you fought the avatar?"

"Yes. However, the air benders are no more. They were wiped out before my grandfather learned to crawl, let alone fire bend. The last avatar died before he could reseed the Air Nomads. The handful of female novices that survived the Fire Nation attack a century ago were enslaved. They are all dead and the few descendants that exist did not show any sign of being able to bend air."

"How did…"

"Do you thing what your father did was unique. Rape, unfortunately, has always been part of the battlefield. When Lord Sozen ordered the Air Nomads eliminated, several high-ranking commanders deliberately keep selected female air bending novices as concubines. The problem is that fire is such a dominant element. The few descendants of those slaves that could bend turned out to be fire benders. The only thing left of the Air Nomads are the ruins of their temples and the pressure point striking technique your aunt taught you."

Uncle pulled out a folding chair and sat down.

"Your aunt is a fifth-generation descendant from a young novice named Karuka. As far as I know, your aunt and cousins are the last descendants of the Air Nomads. Your aunt's relatives were all killed when the earth benders unleashed the volcanoes. I doubt there will be any more air benders.

"Fire Lord Azulon tried breeding some loyal air benders for an infiltration unit. The same for water benders, too. However, it seems that only the talent to been is hereditary. What we bend depends on something else…perhaps culture. That is why we fight to protect it. If we acquiesce…then maybe there will be no fire benders.

"Does aunt know?"

Uncle nodded. "More of it than I did. What is the history of our people?"

Ying stood up as she faithfully repeated the Fire Nation creed, "We are the sons and daughters of fire, the superior element! We are a free, proud people. We never kow tow, not even to the gods, let alone a man. We spite the will of he gods and make our own destiny."

Uncle held up his hand silencing Ying in the middle of her recitation.

"Lies…all lies. We were once slaves. Our female ancestors were Earth Kingdom and Air Nomad girls captured by the ancient Sun Warriors. Their sons and daughters stole the secret to fire manipulation and overthrew their fathers. The Earth Kingdom expanded westwards into our old lands and we lost a war. We fled to the western islands where Agni, the first Fire Lord, established our ancestral home. We were impoverished until we discovered trade and the secret to making steel. What everyone called the Fire Nation is perhaps a mongrel nation unified in its ability to control fire and the delusion that we control the superior element. We made myths to cover our weakness. For generations, we lie to ourselves that we were strong. We grew by exploring, learning more than others, striking out and taking chances. Then we learned to love and believe in the lies. We believed that we were strong enough to take on and unify the world.

"Look where believing ourselves superior got us. The gods turned against us. We no longer have a home. We are a people in exile. If we don't…I fear that one day, there will be no more fire benders. If we lose the spark, we are truly an enslaved race with nothing to fight for…to live and die for…The moment we stop resisting and start integrating into the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes…we will be no more than a historical footnote."

Uncle withdrew a cigarette from his smoking pouch and lit one up. He closed his eyes as he savored the taste of burning tobacco as it rolled down his throat into his lungs.

"Jian…Lian. I know you're there. I heard the scrap of your sandal on the stone."

The twins came down the stairs.

"Father, can you teach us the fire whip and tentacle thingy?" Lian asked.

"You have seen it in action. Doing it once you have seen it is not so hard. It just realizing that it can be done it the hard part. Just remember to examine how the little things interact. Come with me upstairs to the roof…I have one more lesson before I turn in."

The four quietly made their way to the roof.

"Lian, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

"The moon is sad. Its aura is grey."

Jian scoffed at his sister's comment, "The moon is grey."

"No brother, its aura is grey. It's like it's a person…"

"The moon was a beautiful Northern Water Tribe princess named Yue," Uncle Li interrupted. "When Admiral Zhao killed the original moon spirit at the Siege of the North Pole, the princess sacrificed herself so we all have the moon. She was in love, but gave it up to save the moon and our world."

Jian looked at his father, "Is this just another one of those fairy tales like mom tell the little kids?"

Uncle shook his head, "If only. I was there. I saw Admiral Zhao strike down the moon spirit. I saw Princess Yue give up her mortal life to become the new moon spirit. I saw the avatar transform from a little boy into a monster that destroyed the great Northern Fleet and drowned thousands of Fire Nation sailors and naval infantrymen."

"You saw the avatar?" Lian asked in awe.

Uncle rarely talked about the past. Even inebriated, uncle was tight-lipped about the details.

"The avatar was my target. His capture would have meant the end of the war and I would have earned my right to return home," sighed the weary man.

He pointed his finger towards a familiar constellation and started on the next story.

"The dragons were the first fire benders…"

* * *

Fire benders awoke with the sun. However, there was no law stating that they all did so with great enthusiasm. Waking up on the hard earth with crystals on one's back was not a good thing for a man entering middle age.

 _The little ones were stirring._

A little voice inside his head chastised him for calling the teens…little one. When he was their age, he thought he knew his future. He would capture the Avatar. He would return home and reclaim his honor. He would have earned father's love and Azula's respect.

Now he was a man with duties. Father, uncle, husband, fire bending teacher, master merchant, smuggler, and yes, technically Fire Lord in exile.

His eldest son, Jian did not know that he was now the crown prince. A newborn would not remember the old fire sage that marked his shoulder. As far as Jian knew, it was just a birthmark. The old battered crown was just an age-old relic.

 _I need to stop channeling uncle._

The man called Li knew that he had let out too much. Yes, the kids were on the verge of adulthood and would need to learn the lessons he acquired the hard way, but he did not want to destroy their childhood too early.

Yet, he remembered the impatience he had as a teen. It was like there was a vast adult conspiracy to keep him ignorant.

Now, he would trade away his fortune to once again enjoy the bliss of youthful ignorance. He would even drink tea to once again be in the presence of his uncle.

 _Stop it…you are going to break down and cry in front of the kids…Do not break down and cry, dammit. Grow up. You have not been a child since mom walked away. Besides if uncle saw you he would turn away and disappear like mother._

When he was younger, he wondered what made him so unlovable that even his mother would walk away from him. It took four years of exile to understand that he was unworthy of love.

 _You betrayed uncle. If mother remained in your life, you probably would betrayed her too._

 _Traitors don't deserve love._

He never deserved anything but hate and scorn.

Yet, fate was good to him considering his sins. He failed his uncle and mother. He failed his nation. He failed to love Mai the way she loved him. He remembered the slim, dark girl slipping out of his bed in the dark of night before the servants had a chance to see and gossip about the illicit liaison. He remembered feeling emptiness when Mai took the sword blow that was meant to kill him. She loved him and he was too numb to even shed a tear from his good eye.

He was afraid…a coward.

He married Ty Lee because he failed to be loyal to someone who died for him. One night, it just happened and that one was enough to guarantee Ty Lee's pregnancy. He married her because he was the father of her children and it was his duty. He had a family that loved him and he was not worth loving.

He was scum and yet people envied him. They did not know that he would trade his life, his wealth for just one moment of approval from those he let down.

Something would go wrong. Things always went wrong. The only thing he could do was to impart enough lessons to the kids so they had a chance to escape the punishment that he knew would eventually befall him.

He prayed that when fate turned against him, he would be alone on the road so Ty Lee and the kids would be safe. Death was a constant companion for someone in his trade. He had sent enough to death's halls to know that one day, someone would snuff out his light like he did so many others.

Agni gave him more than enough stubbornness to survive a holiday in hell. If it was no, the fire sages were right…we create our own hell.

The old man stood up and shuffled towards the house. Hopefully, he could crawl into bed before his wife woke up.

Most men are afraid of having their wives scream at them. Screaming was child's play. No Ty Lee did not have to scream. All she had to do was simply refuse to massage his aching back.


	4. Forever on the Outside Looking In

**Successors to the Blue Spirit: Forever on the outside looking in**  
 **By Violent Vi**

 **A/N:** I made a name change on one of the main characters.

* * *

 _ **The Tent at the Village Outskirts**_  
 _ **Southern Water Tribe**_

The racket of the polar bear dogs and snow leopard caribou woke up Ming Bei Fong from her dreams of being on a warm sandy beach.

 _The sun is not awake…go back to bed…Why can't it be winter forever so the sun can remain in bed._

Ming Bei Fong despised the South Pole.

Ming disliked the cold.

Ming loathed the snow.

Ming abhorred the ice.

Ming seethed at the sight of the Southern Water Tribe.

In general, Ming hated everything that was wrong with her life.

The fifteen-year-old just wanted to sleep in and contemplate life without snow…without ice…without the annoying Water Tribe. However, she could not. Mother needed her help and the little income she made to help feed her little brother and the twins.

Ming slammed her fist into the cold, earth beneath her. The yelp of the alpha polar bear dogs confirmed the fact that the stone struck its mark.

"Ming Bei Fong! We…do…not…hurt the animals," her mother roared. "I taught you better than that."

 _It's official. Mom's pissed. She just used the full name. Oh, woe is poor little bastard Ming…The little seal pup is so terrified…What's mama seal going to do…lecture her and…make her drink sea prune tea during etiquette lessons._

As a kid, Ming was once terrified of her mother. Despite being to pass for a ten-year-old, Ming Bei Fong was _wiser_. She was too old to spank.

"What's the matter, mom? Is _daddy dearest_ going to be upset again that Kayuh couldn't get it up again? Just use dad, his dick is already use to going up every hole…"

Slap.

 _Mother is fast._

"Ming Bei Fong, respect your father. You can insult me. You can insult yourself. Hell, you can insult the gods for all I care. But…never…insult…your father!"

Ming gingerly stood up, feeling with her tongue to see if a tooth was loosened. There was a little blood but the tooth was firm

"Yes, mother," she replied.

Ming imagined her father signing one of his _royal proclamations_ with a drawing of a giant erect penis. It would be legible unlike her father's current signature and the new name would perfectly fit.

Mother rapped her across the back of her legs with the wooden spoon.

"Do not forget I am your mother. I don't have to see to know what you are muttering under your breath. If I hear of any mention of your father and a drawing of an erect…Just be prepared for the consequences young lady!"

 _Just be prepared for the consequences young lady! I remembered when mom use to be cool. Now, dad has turned her into this. Why did mom have to hook up with that dick?_

As she muttered curses under her breath, Ming wondered what sins did she commit in her last life to end up here in this half-life.

To raise her, mother became a meek serving girl who was expected to share her master's bed. Hell, she had seen dad just bend mom over his desk and he did not bother to check if the door was open. Half the household slaves witnessed the conception of the twins.

 _Why couldn't I just get_ 'The Talk' _like the other kids? No, I had to see them reproduce…ugh. Perverts. I bet if he did not have other options, he would stick his thing up the nearest walrus._

Mother might have been blind, but even she could not miss that fact that the master's official wife and the master's official children held her in contempt.

 _We should have remained in the Earth Kingdom. Even if we lived in a hovel, it would only be us and not them…And we would not freeze in this tent to the accompaniment of polar bear-dogs mating at all hours._

Once, one of the wealthiest families in the Earth Kingdom, the Bei Fong family now consisted of mother, Hoa, and three younger, real siblings. Her three siblings were the only reason that Ming had not snapped and started the great Mid-Winter's Night killing spree.

It was time to go to work…to bite her tongue and please the horny bastard who sired her so Ming could earn her five bronze coins for the day. It was time to face father's official family.

Two girls walked by giggling at the village idiot. It did not matter that Ming was their half-sister. To them being a half-sister made it more fund to torture, because taunting the bastard child seem to be the official family's favorite pastime. They had a nine household slaves and yet, they had to pick on the 'indentured servant.'

"Oh, serving boy…be a good dear and fetch me the blue kimono."

 _You have to turn the other cheek. You are better than them. A lady does not descend down to level of guttersnipes._

 _Shut up mom. Why don't you deal with them and not dream of properly chastising them? They could use training in a little humility. A little expose to virtue via hard work and pain is cleansing for the soul._

Ming's half-sisters were pressing her buttons even before breakfast was served.

Ming hated being called boy.

It was not her fault that she inherited her mother's lithe build. It was not her fault that her family was poor and all they could barely afford was the slave rations. The only good thing about poverty was that she was not tit-heavy and big-asses like the fat cows of the Southern Water Tribe. Despite being fifteen, years of lean rations meant Hoa had yet to encounter puberty and could pass as a ten-year-old.

 _If it was not for mother's command, you all will be dead…no you all would be begging for death's swift release by the time I am done with you and your bitch mother._

Instead of summoning a sharpened earth spike to impale the pair, Ming gave her half-sisters, Ah-Seong and Bo-Ram, a polite bow of the head before heading up to the girls' changing room.

Ming knew that today would be just another bad day among fifteen-years of bad days.

Unlike Ming and her three real siblings, who owned only two sets of clothing, suitable to the Antarctic climate…father's official daughters each had a dozen different silk kimonos. Then add in all the cotton ones…Ming knew that she would be running up and down the stairs all day long to get the "right" kimono.

She knew better than to ask which one. Her half-sisters would keep changing their minds until she ran them all down for their inspection. Ming resisted the urge to look longingly at the line of servants lining up for breakfast outside.

Odds were certain that all the food designated for the servants would be gone before Ming could get a bite. Hunger was a constant, familiar companion to Ming.

 _Breakfast would not be in future._

 _Lunch was definitely out of the realm of possibility._

If Ming was lucky, dinner, would be some boiled water that once touch a piece tiger seal blubber.

Ming envisioned running away from her father's home. She envisioned a warm tropical beach that never saw ice nor snow. She envisioned a life free from father's official family.

However, she could not leave mother and her real family. Ice and snow covered the ground year-round. The ever-present danger of frostbite meant that even mother had to wear the thick boots when walking outside. Once mother left their tent, Ming was her eyes.

It was the fourth or fifth trip back up the stairs that got Ming wishing that she was a fire bender. Even with the slow lingering capital punishment inflicted upon fire benders, it would almost be worth it if she could set her father's official daughters' wardrobes on fire.

Hoa officially reviled the South Pole. There was far too much ice and snow to do some serious earth bending.

The only benefit to being her father's daughter was that unlike the other servants, she was technically a _free woman_. The other servants were slaves from the former Fire Nation or their children.

The slave kept to themselves, away from the Southern Water Tribe overloads, living in their own corner of the village. On its edge was the little seal-skin tent which Hoa, her mother, and her real siblings called home. The location proclaimed Ming's status…not a slave…not a member of father's household.

Hoa carefully draped the kimonos so they would not wrinkle or get dirty. She knew the slave girls tasked to do the laundry and helped them on laundry days. Anyone tasked to clean the poop-stained underwear of the Southern Water Tribe deserved a little break from unnecessary work.

The half-breed carefully walked down the stairs. She knew better than to run down the stairs in a home where a water bender resided. Her oldest half-sister, Ah-Seong, was a water bender and found it funny to ice a stair tread. More than once, Ming slipped down a flight of stairs to Ah-Seong's delight accompanied by the brat's piggish squeals and snorts.

 _One hundred bronze coins on Ah-Seong getting bred in the next six month._

Everyone knew Ah-Seong was the village bank…every Water Tribe boy over the age of fourteen and quite a few older men had left a deposit in her vaults. The question was not who's dick Ah-Seong sat on, but rather which ones she needed to complete her collection.

 _Can't wait to see Ah-Seong and Bo-Ram throwing up in the mornings. I told you so would be so fitting. They get to ride the whale and mom freaks out whenever I speak to any boy over the age of ten._

It was one more thing to add to Ming ever growing 'Why I hate the world and wish to kill everyone in it list.'

Besides, today was a lucky day. It was market day, so her half-sisters would not spend the entire day playing kimono fetch.

* * *

 ** _The Armory and Practice Ring_**  
 ** _Noon_**

Father had other uses for his bastard daughter today.

Ming carefully wrapped the kimono in the paper sleeves before carefully putting them away in the closest. She did not want to have to spend all night ironing their laundry. Cleaning the turds out of her four-year-old half-brother's underwear using ice cold water was bad enough.

It was time to run to the practice yard. Not many would willingly face her father's sword.

Due to a lack of capable sparing partners, Ming and her brother were tasked to be father's living, breathing hacking practice pole…aka sparring partner. With today being a school day for her brother, all of father's attention was going to focused on her. Even if her little ten-year-old brother was not as proficient as she was with the sword, having an ally would have been a significant advantage for today's practice session.

It was the only time father acknowledge that his bastard children existed.

Ming knew that it was wrong to feel anything but contempt for her sire…it was a betrayal to mother.

Ming walked quickly to the armory and pulled out two practice blades. She carefully inspected them for signs of cracking before determining that they were relatively safe for use. While these practice blades were not sharpened like the real blades, they still could kill if you screwed up.

Ming tossed her father one of the practice swords. He caught it, pulled it out, quickly inspected it for flaws, and then nodded his approval at her selection.

 _A warrior who does not know his own soul, mind, body, and weapon is a dead warrior. Always know…never assume._

"Go ahead. Rules…Stay alive and try to kill me this time," her father commanded.

Ming merely nodded as she slowly spiral to her right, slowly closing the gap between her and her sire.

 _Breathe in…Breathe out…Breathe in…Breathe out…Step slowly…keep balance…Be re…_

Father exploded and slashed his blade straight at her.

 _Deflect…deflect…deflect…luge…slice down…missed!_

Ming stomped her foot on the stone ground of the sparing ring. A pillar popped up between her and the straight blade of the _jian_ stopping the blow and forcing father to step back.

 _If it was father's real blade, you would be dead. Crap…where is he_.

Ming mentally kicked herself for violating the first rule… _know where your foe is at all times_. She closed her eyes, kicked off her shoes, and tapped the earth hoping that mom's trick would work in time.

Crap…crap…crap!

Father's boomerang is…

Ming threw herself forward, twisted, and swung her blade, cutting towards the sun.

She could not see the flying boomerang, but the impact of the weapon told her that she bought herself a second to reacquire her father and center her senses.

"Horse stance…sword across your lap."

Without hesitation, Ming squatted down into a horse stance with her blade pointing left to right across her lap. She breathed in slowly, calming her heart and counting the breaths. Her arms were forward. She could not move, not until he commanded her or attacked her.

"Your sword is trembling. Make your stance wider, spread those knees. Bring your butt half-a-hand lower."

Ming complied. Father was a sadist when it came to sword training. Ming resisted the urge to curse the Fire Nation sword-master who taught father how to combine training, torture, and weekly father-bastard daughter bonding into a single event.

Suddenly, her father pulled back and thrust the point of blade at Ming's throat. Ming quickly leaned back, half-twisted her torso to the right. She grabbed her sword with her left hand. Using the strong part of the blade near the hilt, she knocked her father's thrust to the side.

"Excellent. Good situational awareness. You're using your superior flexibility and energy against an older opponent. There might be some hope for you after all, Hoa. You might one day be able to beat me before I'm on my deathbed"

Ming was tempted to lash out…to send out a decade and a half of resentment at her sire. However, losing your emotions in a sword duel against a master swordsman was a sure method of suicide.

Instead, Ming let her momentum from the block rotate her hips as she drove her left knee just below her father's ribs. She hugged her father tight so he could not effectively swing his sword at her as she repeatedly hammered her knee into the soft flesh between his hip and his rib-cage.

Father arms exploded to the side, breaking her hug. However, the movement knocked the sword out of his hands and unto the ground. Most men would attempt to recover the sword.

Father was not most men. Instead he threw a left elbow at her right temple.

Stunned, Ming staggered backwards and to her left. There were four images of her father and Ming only had enough time for one blow. She launched a stone at the second image from the left.

The image waived and vanish just before the stone sailed through the air.

Suddenly, an impact on the back of her head drove Ming to the ground. If it was not for the protective helmet that father insisted she wear for their weekly practice, Hoa knew that she would be lucky to be alive, let alone conscious.

 _Can't flip…the ground is moving too much…no, your balance is off. No acrobatic tricks until you stop seeing double._

Inspiration struck Ming. She started to make the stones under her father's feet to move up and down in a random pattern.

Father laughed as he lightly stepped on each stone, hopping his way towards her.

"Excellent, you would break the root of many a swordsman, but the best of us practice fighting on uncertain footing. Thank you for giving me the high ground."

 _Meep_

Ming's mind shut down just before whacked her across the temple with the flat of his blade.

"Sparing is over. Tell me what you did wrong."

Ming resisted the urge to roll over and throw up all over the practice ring.

"Giving up the high ground."

Father merely frowned.

"What else, Ming…"

Ming Bei Fong contemplated what she would say next. She had to say something, but the something eluded her.

"I did not have a back up weapon. If I had a dagger in my sleeve, I could have stabbed you during the clench."

Father nodded his approval and gave her a half smile. He was tempted to ruffle her hair, but she was wary.

Despite her anger at herself for losing yet again another duel, Ming actually looked forward to the few, short, pain-filled hours. It did not matter how many cuts and bruises she received. Ming lived for the few short hours that she could pretend to be her father's real daughter and pretend that maybe deep down inside that he loved her. A part of her believe that if she was good enough, maybe he would publicly recognize her as his child. Maybe then, her mother would be treated with respect.

"Give me one hundred push-ups. I want to see the rust-spot where your nose touched the blade."

The fifteen-year-old complied. Yet she kept an ear our for the sound of a blade moving through the air.

Sixty-seven…Sixty-eight…

Even before her conscious mind registered the sound of a blade moving through the air, Ming quickly rolled to her side, just avoiding a blow that would sever her head from her neck. She kicked out at her father. The kick missed, but the kick was never intended to hit.

Father jumped back and looked at his eldest daughter.

"Be more wary after clash of blades grow dim than when you fight your foe on an open field. After battle is the best time to lay low an otherwise invincible foe. Exhaustion can make the most unbeatable foe weak as a mewing baby."

It sounded like father was proud of her. Ah-Seong, Bo-Ram, or any of father's official kids would not last two seconds in the unarmed sparring ring. Hoa could not imagine them even picking up and swinging a practice blade against the cutting post for thirty seconds without hearing the cries about their arms hurting.

 _Pain is weakness leaving the body. I put in the work…they didn't. They deserve to suffer when they encounter reality._

 _I should be father's real daughter…not Ah-Seong…not Bo-Ram…not any one of Suki's little sluts and mini-peckers in training. He is my father. They don't deserve him. They never had to earn father's love. He is my father and I will have his love._

Ming resisted the urge to cry out her frustrations. She fought every week…every day…for her father's love. They never lifted a finger and yet they had it all. They were his heirs. They lived in his house, ate his food, and were treated like Southern Water Tribe royalty.

She had fought for everything. What little she had, she earned...the hard way with excessive pain and interest.

As long as her father's official wife, that fat bitch, Suki was still alive, nothing will change. Nothing ever changed for the better. Ming and her real siblings were just the consequences of her father took advantage of a little blind girl who had the misfortune of falling in love with a total jerk.

 _What kind of man managed to get two fish hooks stuck in his head when there is only one hook on the line…My father._

Ming prayed to the gods that she would not become as stupid as father was when she grew up.

For a man so smart as to defeat the Fire Nation, father could be so stupid. His official family laughed at him behind his back. Once he was old and feeble, they probably would set him aside and forget about him as they enjoyed his legacy. Why could father not see that he had a daughter who loved him and would sacrifice everything just to feel a fraction of the love that she had for him.

* * *

 _ **Sokka's Office**_  
 _ **Mid-Afternoon**_

Sokka hated politics.

Being the Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribes for the past sixteen years meant that he learned to become quite good at the art. But he hated the games of whispers and innuendos. Politicians could undo in one second, what warriors spent blood to settled on the battlefield. Kuei, the 52nd Earth King at Ba Sing Se, was asking for his help with the escaped slave problem.

Sokka shook his head that Kuei's incompetence. The bastard argued for the lion's share of slaves and…

 _Did anyone teach the Earth Kingdom to think before seizing the prize? Slaves are useful…but you have to keep them under control…_

The Water Tribes did not have an escaped slave problem.

Sokka deliberately limited the number of Fire Nation slaves the Water Tribes imported so that they would never outnumber the loyal population. Also, if any slave was stupid enough to escape, the harsh climate only ensured that the attempt would end via suicide or death from exposure to the elements. Even fire benders could not indefinitely survive the cold.

In addition, Sokka knew better than to rile up his labor force. A riled-up collection of slaves could all too easily become a slave rebellion. Despite not having any formal schooling, the Water Tribe chieftain knew enough history to know that slave rebellions arose more from the stupidity of slave owners who abuse their slaves rather than any desire for freedom.

All Sokka had to do to control the slave was control their rations and resources. He personally planned and scheduled the work projects that employed the slaves. The harsh environment of Antarctic ice was his stick. He just had to manage the carrots so that they would work on his projects without sabotaging them. By controlling the food and imported resources such as wood, tools, and medicines, Sokka keep his small slave labor force steadily employed and content. The royal family aside, the Fire Nation was known for its family loyalty. Parents would do anything to ensure their children don't starve or die from lack of shelter or medicine.

It was obvious that the Earth King lack foresight. He walked into a trap baited by greed and found himself stuck. All he had to do was let go, but the Earth King was too stupid to realize that there were always other ways to get to the prize without getting caught in a trap.

It was an old hunter's trick to bury a vase deep into the ice and place bait to attract the Southern Yeti-Boar. The Yeti-Boar was greedy and would reach in to grab the bait. Once the fist was wrapped around the bait, the Yeti-Boar was trapped. Days later, the hunter would walk down the line of traps, spot his quarry, walk up, and thrust a spear up under its rip cage, straight up into its heart, and twist it to open up a hole. The Yeti-Boar would never let go…even in death. Hunters would have to use an ice axe to hack of the lower arm to be able to process the corpse.

Reading the letter, Sokka wondered if it was worth the energy to prop up such an incompetent ruler.

During his travels with the Avatar, Sokka cursed the existence of the Dai Li.

Now, seeing the incompetence of the current Earth King, the Water Tribe chieftain wondered if maybe the Dai Li were right all along.

Managing the current idiot seemed to take too much of Sokka's time. The Earth King had just enough knowledge to be dangerous, but not intelligent enough to take care of his problems. At least, Aang's old friend, King Bumi of Omashu handpicked a halfway intelligent successor before he died. The other minor Earth Kingdoms were small enough that they were not difficult to rule. However, the go big or go home mentality of the Earth Kings of Ba Sing Se combined with the stereotypical stupidity of an Earth Kingdom yokel…

Sokka imagined the bliss of strangling Kuei and replacing him with the idiot's ten-year-old son Quan. A ten-year-old kid could still potentially learn something useful and maybe one day run a kingdom. However, the political situation in the Earth Kingdom demanded that Sokka help the idiot keep his throne long enough to raise a spoiled prince and ensure a stable transition.

Sokka could not and did not want to send a Water Tribe garrison to the Earth Kingdom. The Southern Water Tribes suffered a lot of causalities during the war. With only ten-percent of its pre-War population surviving the 100-year-war, Sokka needed his warriors at home, making lots of babies, and training up the next generation of warriors. The Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe could not afford to even send a token force. Taking a platoon, thirty warriors, away from breeding and training…He needed enough babies to grow up to become warriors and hunters. There was a chance that one of the lads or young ladies would be the next avatar and he would be damned if he sent the next avatar to the Earth Kingdom before he had time to train Aang's successor.

Yet, Sokka had to send some symbol of support beyond mere words.

Sokka looked outside the windows at his illegitimate daughter, Ming. She was furiously cleaning off the practice weapons they had just used.

Suki hated Hoa and it was obvious that Ming was about to snap and beat the stuffing out of Suki and her kids. Unlike Suki's brats, Ming was a capable warrior, even without her earth bending.

When Toph walked into the Southern Water Tribe with a three-year-old, tanned skinned girl calling her mommy, Suki knew exactly who the father was even before Sokka could recall a night of cactus juice and the best sex of his life. If Suki did not already give birth to Ah-seong and was eight months along with Bo-Ram, she would returned back to Kyoshii Island. Suki had literally thrown him out of the bedroom and sentenced him to a lifetime on the couch.

Now the only time Suki would now pleasure him was the three or four times a year when she got drunk enough to have angry hate-sex with him.

Sokka looked over at the meek serving girl who mutely knelt at his feet before writing his reply to the Earth King.

He wrote to the incompetent of Ba Sing Se that he was sending a master tracker and swords-woman that he specially trained himself to track down the Blue Spirit and the escaped Fire Lord Zuko.

Kuei could not argue since Sokka would be technically sending his own child, albeit an illegitimate one, but an earth-bending prodigy and a capable hunter-tracker trained personally by the Master Swordsman of the Southern Tribes.

If Ming succeeded, she would be some kind of hero, given some kind of title. With the right words in Kuei's ear, maybe Ming could quickly married off to Kuei's son. Maybe one day, one of his grandchildren would control the eastern half the Earth Kingdom and Sokka would be spared the headache of keeping a useful idiot on the throne.

If Ming failed, Sokka would quietly mourn the loss of his favorite child. He would blame the Earth King for his failure to protect Ming and use the incident to place one of his other daughters on the throne. Either way, the Southern Water Tribe would win some concession.

Sokka's mind quickly went over the details. His only regret was that it would be difficult to find another sparing partner that is willing to take on the bruises that Hoa seemed to pick up daily let alone train one to be halfway competent with a sword. His three sons were too young and it would take half a decade before they could even start challenging him in the practice ring.

Sokka carefully blotted the parchment so the ink did not smear. He then called one of the lads on guard duty and had him run the message to the messenger hawk tower for delivery to Ba Sing Se.

* * *

 _ **The Circus Commissary**_  
 _ **Southern Water Tribe Slave Camp**_  
 _ **Late Afternoon**_

"Ming-san, come here. We saved you some soup," chorused the six Flying Ty sisters.

Everyone knew of the six Fire Nation circus sisters that ran the slave camp commissary, the Circus.

While all six were master acrobats, each sister had a special talent. Ty Liu was a master of the _shakuhachi_ (bamboo flute). Ty Lat was a swimmer who could somehow braved the cold waters of the harbor on a daily basis to keep the docks in good repair. Ty Lum played the _koto_ (harp). Ty Lat was an origami master and the tailor for the slaves. Ty Lao taught dancing. And Ty Woo was the sister that could make anyone look foolish with her verbal jutsu. Separately, each one was capable. Together, there was no denying that they, not the Southern Water Tribe overseers were the ones who ran the Slave Camp. Together, they had ruined two overseers and the current one know that to cross the six sisters was to kiss any chance of avoiding becoming the laughing stock of the Water Tribes goodbye.

"Ming and Maiko are downstairs getting ready for tonight's performance. I can't wait to see what you have for us, Little Drumer Girl," Ty Lao announced as she stirred the giant soup pot. "Don't worry, I will make sure dinner is served early tonight. Can't throw a performance without audience. Here have some…You can't perform on an empty stomach."

Ming thanked the Ty sisters as she slowly sipped the cup of hot soup. There was real meat and sizable cubes of fat. It was the perfect food for this cold hell call half her ancestors called home.

The young earth bender savored the simple meal as if it was a feast before heading below into the basement.

The basement of the Circus was a warren of slave quarters and storage strong rooms used to hold the limited slave rations. Ming walked to the right door and used a copy of a key she had stolen years ago. She looked for a specific stone and with a flick of the wrist commanded the hidden stone door to open.

Two years ago, Ming and Hoa had built a hidden stairway that would only reveal itself to an earth bender. The only other way it could be open was from the inside. There was a performance stage just outside the Circus Commissary. It would be used by the storyteller tonight. The few guards would see parents and young children listening to old stories and would not think that below their feet was the Slave Camp's real theater.

Ming closed the door behind her as she went down into the bowels of the under basement.

Keiko and Maiko, the twins were waiting. At fourteen, the twins were already master performers. Ming was an archer like his father, a former Fire Nation Yu Yan archer. Maiko was more like her mother's family, a master musician and dancer.

Maiko threw Ming a bundle of clothing, "Auntie Lat got the fabric special, just for you."

Ming felt the smooth fabric. It was not the coarse linen that she was familiar with.

"It was my aunt's. The missing seventh sister."

Ming shook her head. She had felt silk when she had to fetch her half-sister's kimonos.

"I don't deserve it…it's yours Maiko. It belongs to your family."

Maiko simply hugged the teary-eyed girl, "You are one of us. We outsiders must stick together. Otherwise that bitch will eat us alive."

Ming was afraid to say anything.

"Ming, turn around. Ming, I want you to dry those eyes, put on that dress, and give us a performance tonight that would be talked about for generations."

Ming slide out of the bulky cold weather clothing and into the sheer dress. It was cold and she shivered as her breath condensed.

Maiko breathed in and exhaled. One by one the torches lit up barely illuminating the perimeter of the circular room. The stage was still wrapped in darkness. Between each pair of torches was were drums ranging in size from the resonant little _shimedaiko_ to the giant _okaiko_ , the great thunder drum whose diameter was taller than a warrior's arm span. However, the vast majority of drums were the _chudaiko_ since the small wine barrels used to make them were commonly discarded and salvaged for use as furniture by the slaves and poorer families of the Water Tribe

It was too early to start drumming, even to practice. Until the storytellers and musicians above started performing, the trio could not risk the discovery of the underground circus. Instead, the trio inspected the rigging to ensure that everything was ready for tonight.

The sun slipped below the western horizon as the crowd slowly infiltrated the Underground Circus in ones and twos. Everyone silently grabbed a seat and quietly waited for the signal for tonight's festivities to begin.

It was time. The three doormen signaled that the doors were secured. Then the room went dark.

There was a series of whooshes before the drums started sounding off.

Three steady thuds reverberated though the quiet room as a series of bird calls.

A voice ran out singing the in ancient Fire Nation temple language.

 _Here come the ones who dance in the darkness_

 _Because they danced, the moon was enchanted,_

 _Because they danced, the shining moon climbed down to the Earth,_

 _Here comes the moon, her feet gently touches the sea,_

 _The foam touches the shore to mark her arrival,_

 _The sun is now lonely alone in the sky,_

 _Wondering where his sister was,_

 _Let us help Agni, let us find his sister,_

 _Find her so that they who dance in the darkness,_

 _Can once again dance under the enchanted moon._

The torches flared to reveal three masked dancers. The male wore the mask of the sun and was armed with a bow. Other wore the mask of the moon and armed with a spear. The third wore a silk mask covering her face and wielded a straight sword.

The sword wielding dancer stomped in wild abandonment as small stones whipped across the room striking the drums.

 _See how the dancers gash their teeth,_

 _For there is no moonlight to enchant a lover,_

 _Lonely the heart is, where is she,_

 _Agni cried, "My sister the moon."_

The dancers screamed and fell. The drums fell silent as the room fell into darkness.

A small flicker of flame appeared lighting the moon dancer and the sun.

The moon dancer wielded her spear and looked at the sun archer.

 _What are you going to do, brother?_

 _Lock me away like a king's treasure,_

 _I see the dancers, stomp for love,_

 _Yet I sit up here unloved,_

 _No…no…no, brother._

 _I will no longer sit alone in the sky._

 _Unloved, alone, forever lonely._

 _I too will dance._

 _My feet touch Earth and Sea,_

 _For the dance has enchanted me._

Shaking visibly with anger, the sun pulled out his bow, nocked an arrow, and aim it at the moon.

 _I promised Father Sky and Mother Earth that I would bring you home,_

 _I am the Sun and you are the moon,_

 _I am the eldest and you will obey me._

The moon giggled, made a rude sign, performed a twirl while audibly smacking her rear. She completed the dance by performing a raspberry and pointed her spear at the sun.

 _Haughty elder brother,_

 _Promising father and mother,_

 _On what you can never deliver._

 _You think yourself the equal of the creator, preserver, and destroyer._

 _I danced, I am dancing, I will dance._

 _Your anger nor your flames will stop me._

The Sun scream and attacked the moon with fire blasts. The moon dances around the blasts with ease, dancing and taunting the sun.

The Sun cast down his bow and pulled out his javelin.

 _I am…I am the Sun._

 _I am the fire that will never die._

 _I will…I will defeat you._

The blind dancer snapped up and dance as she sang out to the audience.

 _Brother and sister fight…_

 _The heavens are at war,_

 _Neither sibling giving nor requesting quarter._

 _Yet the dance go on._

The blind dancer started flinging the stones as the drum with earth bending. The tempo was slow, but started speeding up, until the stones blurred as they flashed past the flames.

The sun and moon fought in tempo with the drums. At times the moon was about to strike down her brother. At other times, the sun was about to capture his sister. The audience was staring at the way the performers were actually fighting with live weapons with blows barely missing one another and the dancer who sounded the drums.

 _Sister cease this unseemly behavior._

 _Honor our mother's and father's words._

 _Return back to the sky._

The moon refused again.

 _You may take me from this place._

 _You may lock me up and throw away the key,_

 _However, you cannot keep me forever._

 _I will dance among the mossy forests and highest peaks._

 _And no matter what…you will not stop me_.

Smiling behind the mask, Ming felt that she was finally part of something…something forbidden. However, when you are an outsider condemned to look in, breaking the rules was your only option.

Drumming and dancing, pure and simple, were Ming only escape from the cold, stark reality of Southern Water Tribe life.

* * *

 _ **Lemon Warning**_  
 _ **If you wish…skip to the next chapter.**_

 _ **Sokka's Office**_  
 _ **Early Evening**_

Sokka resented Toph Bei Fong.

The Blind Bandit was supposed to be some kick-ass fighter who would kick the asses off anyone who ticked her off.

The waif-like thing kneeling at his feet was meeker than an abused seal pup begging for some fish scraps. He looked into her unseeing eyes seeking some remnant of the spark.

 _You are not so fun anymore…_

Toph had only one real job.

"Up," Sokka commanded.

Toph stood up.

Sokka pushed her roughly on the shoulder. He did not have to say another world as she silently bent over. He walked behind the earth bender and lifted up her short dress.

No underwear…Toph knew her role.

Toph merely remained mute, bent over at the table quietly waiting for him to sate his needs with her flesh.

"No spirit…" the chieftain muttered.

He dropped his pants and placed his organ near her folds. Toph could feel him, but did not move a single muscle.

"Why don't you fight me," he snarled into her left ear.

Sokka roughly grabbed the back of her hair, twisted her head so he could attack her lips with his, and pushed her firmly onto the desk as her drove in his organ sans foreplay.

"Why don't you resist?" he yelled into her ear as he took her.

He wanted Toph Bei Fong to fight. He wanted her to drive a stone shaft up from the earth and launch him into the sky. He wanted her to be the wild, exciting Toph that he screwed sixteen years ago.

"Damn you, bitch. Why don't you feel anything? That psycho-knife throwing bitch that died for Zuko had more fire than you. Your heat is made of stone."

He released his essence inside of her passage. However, he was still erect.

"I will break your heart of stone. You will break…"

Sokka looked at Toph's other-hole. An idea popped into his mind.

"Do you know what happens to a rock when water seeps in. That and freeze…thaw and freeze until the rock is broken from the inside out.

Sokka remembered the back-door treatment.

It was back luck for a female to be aboard a warship. However, sailors had needs and often had to turn to one another for comfort on long voyages. It was never spoken of, but understood by all that sailors needed a bunk buddy. His father and Bato were bunk buddies. It was expected. Sokka was the only boy his age so it was up to Bato to initiate Sokka into the Southern Water Tribe Cult of Manhood.

It took a while for Sokka to get use to sharing that passage and that was with a man who was gentle.

Toph was not going to get gentle.

Toph screamed in pain as her lover violently violated her rear passage.

* * *

 _You deserve this…If you did not run away…If only you remained the dutiful daughter father wanted you to be…If you had only fought for his love sooner and not let Suki sink her claws into him._

Regrets were not a natural feeling for an earth bender.

 _You could end it all. All it would take is a single stomp._

However, Toph could not do it.

She needed this. She needed the humiliation the she so richly deserved. She needed to experience the pain…the hurt. She needed to suffer, to be made good.

Sokka would hurt her…he would keep hurting her…He would give her the pain she needed so she would be allowed to feel.

When Toph first saw Sokka with Suki…Toph could not live with the emptiness that settled inside her heart.

Toph remembered her first heat. The Fire Nation slaves would speak of the burning and would go to great lengths to keep females who were undergoing the burning away from males until they were ready to have a family.

Father never told Toph about her real mother. Why should Toph's father brag about impregnating some ten-year-old half-breed girl?

Toph's real mother was the product of a rape by some randy Fire Nation soldier upon some refugee girl. For a poor child living on the streets, being a servant to a rich lord seemed to be a dream, even if the price was the loss of innocence as the master mounted you. Toph's real mother was only eleven when she died in child-birth. Father did not know that Toph would one day suffer the burning.

Toph remembered the overwhelming need. IT was not just a need for any man, but one man. She crawled into Sokka's tent with a wine skin of cactus juice and gave away her virtue.

The next night, she mutely sat there as Suki entered Sokka's tent. At that moment, Toph knew that her life was over. Sokka' love was just a stupid dream by a stupid, blind girl. She remembered sneaking away that night and hitching a ride back with a returning troop transport to the Earth Kingdom.

She was no longer the Blind Bandit, Toph Bei Fong, or even the Avatar's earth bending instructor. She was the other woman…the seductress…the filthy whore who did not deserve anything good in her life.

She planned to return back to Gaoling, beg forgiveness, and become the little, meek thing her father wanted her to be.

However, secrets had a way of coming out at the worst possible time.

She had barely arrived home and just found out she was pregnant when the Bei Fong family was arrested for treason. The Bei Fong like several other noble families, sold goods to the Fire Nation occupation forces on the western Earth Kingdom. With the fall of the Fire Nation, enemies of the Bei Fong family captured documents showing that her father and grandfather both sold goods to the Fire Nation. It just happened the documents showing the other family's trading activities just mysteriously perished in the flames.

The laws of the Earth Nation were complex. However, the old law on treason was simple…traitors and all family members within three generations were to be punished without mercy.

They tortured everyone to force a confession. They smashed her hands and feet to prevent her from earth bending. Being pregnant, they could not strike her belly, so they attached her joints until her screams rendered her mute, unable to speak

Father died during questioning, remaining mute rather than to admit to treason. The one she called mother revealed the truth that she was a whore's get and deserved whatever they did to her.

Prison births were not uncommon in the Earth Kingdom. If a female criminal was pregnant, the state would not execute her until her child was weaned off the breast. Some ladies made it a point to stay pregnant in a futile effort to delay the inevitable.

For one year, the trials went on. For one year, Toph had to endure the attentions of the guards so she would get enough food to produce the milk that Ming needed. Without earth bending, the only thing she was good for was whoring.

Fate ensured that Toph soon mastered the art of selling her body.

First, it was to ensure that Ming had milk and later food.

After the trials, she was banished to a remote prison in the far north. However, instead of being shipped out to prison, the guard captain sold her to a whore master who dubbed her White Jade in honor of her sightless eyes.

It was better that she was blind. It made it far easier to pretend that it was Sokka sating his needs than seeing a string of strange faces. Every man could be Sokka and that inspired her to perform.

Soon, she was no longer an alley girl. She was reserved for the most expensive of clients because she got so good at faking love. Every night, save for the nights of her bleeding, countless Sokkas took her and used her. Some pretended to care for her, making promises of an easy life as a kept lady. Others treated her as she deserved to be treated.

Toph became a three-hole whore. A living mattress ready to accommodate any one with sufficient coin. She learned to love the ones who would grant her pain…punishment for what she deserved for letting strange men and ladies use her for a few metal trinkets.

Men that would once seek her hand in marriage now rented her for a farmer's monthly wage to spend two incense sticks worth of time. Some just wanted the regular service. However, there were those who wanted extra.

Toph willingly endured the extra.

It was too easy. Nothing could hurt her as much at the moment that Sokka took Suki just hours after Toph gave Sokka her virginity.

Toph would have been whore all her life if it was not for the outbreak of the Red Spotted River Fever in Gaoling. She was mother enough to know that she had to get Ming away from the plague. Mother and child literally crawled into a barn and hid in an abandoned barn. The fever came and nearly killed Ming and herself.

Toph did not want to face Sokka. However, Ming needed something better than the life of a refugee. No mother ever wished their daughters to take on the life of a whore. Toph knew that if they remained in the Earth Kingdom, Ming would end up just like her. It took six months of whoring on the docks, but eventually Toph earned passage to the Southern Water Tribes.

She thought she hid her past. It would be better this way, so Hoa had a chance.

However, Sokka instinctively knew her for what she really was.

Toph knew her fate was to be Sokka's kept women. She was his to abuse or share with whomever he wished. He did not love her. She did not need earth bending to see that he resented her.

However, she needed him. The old her would be disgusted that Toph Bei Fong willingly sought the abuse that he inflicted upon her.

As long as she was his, maybe one day, he would finally love her. It was a dream, but it was the only thing that kept Toph from killing herself.

Toph felt her lover's warm release and hear the plop as his pulled off his organ. It had been thirteen years since her rear passage was violated. Still, the former whore knew what she would have to do.

She turned around and cleaned his rod off with her month. The blood, semen, and her natural odors all mingled in her nose, mouth, and throat.

She knew that in nine months she would give birth to their fourth child.

He would hurt her again and again and she would let him.

Tonight, would be worse.

* * *

 _ **Midnight**_  
 _ **The Chamber**_

Later that evening, Toph silently creep down into the cold cellar and knelt on the icy flagstones.

She waited not moving a muscle waiting for her other master to arrive and punish her for her actions this afternoon.

A series of light footsteps echoed in the cold room. Toph could feel Suki's icy breath as the former Kyoshii warrior walked around her prey.

Toph suppressed a shiver and then slowly removed her tunic.

Suki experienced the breaking of her sanity under the gaze of Prince Azula. The former Kyoshii warrior learned to embrace the pleasure of sharing pain. It was a secret that the former Kyoshii warrior carefully hid from everyone. Everyone except for Toph.

Toph was used to the cuts and bruises. Many a paying client enjoyed striking her. However, no matter the abuse, there was something inside of Toph that no abuse could touch.

However, Suki had quickly broken the former Earth Bending champion. No one could be strong. Every rock had a weak point.

Physical abuse…sexual abuse were familiar companions. However, Suki did not play with the flesh.

 _She read your mind…your soul and attacked weaknesses that you never knew existed._

Eleven years ago, Suki confronted Toph with her past. In two nights, Suki started leading Toph down the all too familiar paths of madness.

Toph remembered the moment she was broken.

This was the room. Toph remember hanging in chains. She remembered something humming as she fight falling into a mentally numb state. Her breathing was ragged. The air stank of sweat and blood. The leather restraints were tight on her hands and ankles.

"I know everything about you White Jade. You outlasted masters of the lash. You took on roomfuls of lovers in depraved orgies. However, who would figure out that the great whore of Gaoling is such an innocent."

Suki's hand gently touched her left cheek.

"You believe that maybe one day that Sokka will love you. He will never love you. I will make sure of it," Suka hummed pleasantly. "I invested too much…suffered too much to let a little whore like you win."

Toph felt the cold air as Suki slowly untied the worn chemise that was her only clothing.

"I'm so glad that I did not let you drown at Serpent's Pass. How could such a whore like you believe that your prince will love you and that Love will conquer all. Even not, you pray that he will lift you up form the gutters and dark alleys and make you his queen."

Toph refused to cry. She wanted to cry…to scream. She wanted to be like all the pretty girls in Ba Sing Se. She wanted her prince to love her. However, all she was good for was the sting of the lash or the entrance of rough flesh into her most intimate places.

"I told the others that you were sick and that I would nurse you back to health. I still remember that kiss. I believe it's time to collect on it."

Suki gently nibbled on Toph's lower lip…It was like the dreams that Toph once had of Sokka nibbling on her. Toph was no stranger to girl-on-girl sex. No whore was.

However, there was something new about this experience…emotion.

Toph found herself acting in heat again. Suki gently fondled her sensitive nipples. Toph found herself shaking in the pleasure. She wanted to tell Suki to go drown herself in the icy cold Antarctic waters of the bay. Instead Toph begged for release.

Suki ran her fingers near Toph's love-box. They were not rough like the other abusive fingers. They were sensitive…almost caring. However, it was not Sokka.

Toph found herself screaming into the gag as Suki brought Toph to her pleasure point.

"Tomorrow, you will bend over his desk and he will mount you. You will just lay there like the abused seal pup you are. He will release himself into you and soon you will bear another one of his bastards."

Suki kissed the blind girl on her lips.

"Afterwards, you will come to me for your punishment. Also, from now on, you will just lie there and just take it. You will do the bare minimum to comply with his wishes. He will have to take his pleasures from your cold cunt, understand? Or maybe your precious little Ming might end up earning her fare back to Gaoling laying her back, spreading her little legs, and learning the family business."

Toph closed her eyes and wept. She hated herself…hated was she truly was. If she ran away, she would never have Sokka's love. If she stayed she would be forced to betray Sokka and become Suki's plaything. If she did not obey…the children would suffer.

She had hoped that her suffering would ensure the safety of her children. Toph now realized that she had only delivered her family was in Suki's trap.

Toph waited for the memories to wash over her. She knelt inside the chalk circle and awaited Suki's punishment. The floor was stone. The walls were stone.

Over the past fifteen years, Toph had healed enough that she could still earth bend, albeit not at the same level as she once did. She could easily crush Suki and destroy the source of her suffering with a flick of the wrist or stomp of the foot.

However, Toph would wait. Just because someone is dead does not mean they could not have paid for a just-in-case assassination or kidnapping contract. Such contracts were a time-honored tradition among some families in the Earth Kingdom.

The other nations of the Earth Kingdom feared the Kyoshii warriors, not for their warrior abilities, but due to the fact that they were collectively the best assassins in the Earth Kingdom. The makeup was used to hide their faces so that they could return, blend in, stalk and kill their prey from the shadows. While the Fire Nation had their own assassin clans, the Kyoshii warriors were among the best and Suki was their leader.

Sometimes, Suki would not show. Other times, Suki would humiliate her. The worst was when Suki would actually be tender, affectionate as if Suki actually loved her. Those were the worse moments. The humiliation…the pain…the physical hurt did not register. The moment of kindness…tenderness…those hurt Toph in places where she once believed that she was untouchable.

Toph had to remain in the trap. She would silently suffer Suki's abuses, grudgingly obey the mistress. Until her children were old enough to escape, Toph would wait.

Toph was exhausted from waiting. She found herself day-dreaming about an alternate universe where she was still a proud earth bender.

 _"Hahahaha…I am Melon Lord and I will crush you all!"_

 _Toph smiled in pleasure as she flung a flaming-tar encrusted boulder at Suki._


	5. Nightmares of Past, Present, and Future

**Successors to the Blue Spirit: Nightmares of the past, present, and future  
** **By Violent Vi**

* * *

Jian Li was all too familiar with a room that he never saw. The fifteen-year-old almost whimpered at the familiar red and yellow decorations.

 _Not again…Agni please._

His mother taught him that Agni answers the prayers of his faithful. However, in Jian's experience, Agni was a perverse chaos god who only seemed to enjoy piling on more and more _shit_ on Jian's life in some perverse test of faith.

In this place, it was Agni's chariot was supposed to be in the sky, yet it was dark. The god that gave his children strength now hid behind the moon.

Agni would not answer the prayers of his faithful this day. Today was the day that the children of Agni would be broken, eventually to be either enslaved or killed in a genocide.

Everything was on fire. Yet nothing was being consumed by the flames. Jian Li attempted to extend his senses. Yet, for all his skill, he could not feel the heartbeat of the fire, its deep breath where it sucked down precious air, nor its hunger as it consumed fuel. He could not feel the pulse of his internal fire. Fire bending was not an option at this time nor in this place.

The young lad knew what was going to happen. It happened every night since he was old enough to remember his dreams. No matter what he tried, things were going to remain the same…At the end of this nightmare, Jian Lee was going to die.

There was a loud bank as the door flew across the room. Along with smoke and flame came in three Water Tribe barbarians. Jian Li's ears were ringing.

They were tall. They stood a head taller than he was and he had to look up to see their cruel blue eyes.

One of them swung a sword at his face. Instinctively, he ducked and rolled back without his usual grace. His right-hand drive inside his kimono and pulled out a throwing dart. With a flick of his wrist, the dart impaled itself into the throat of the first barbarian. With his left hand, he drew the antique tanto that sat at the headboard of the bed.

The tanto was old, but sharp. Its slightly curved blade was two finger joints longer than a hand span. It was smaller than the tachi that the first Sun Warriors carried into battle, but in his hands would be every bit as deadly.

"Zuko," he yelled in a voice not his own.

He had to warn others that the attack was happening.

Jian Li spotted the next blow coming. He dodged backwards and to his right. One of the barbarians, lighter skinned than the others thrusted a spear. Jian sidestepped the spear thrust, grabbed the spear shaft just behind the blade. He pulled the spearman into towards him with the right hand and slashed out with the tanto at the left-side…technically the right-side of the spearman's neck.

The tanto was not a full-length sword, but it was kept sharp enough to do its job. The pulsing arterial spray told Jian that the enemy was dying. However, Jian knew that a dying enemy was still a dangerous enemy. The tanto moved in a reflexive action across the throat of the enemy and sealed the deal.

Two down…One more and Jian would save the day.

However, one became five as four more enemy assassins entered the room.

Once Jian had hoped to survive. However, now he knew that fate would demand a death. The question was how many of the enemy would accompany him to Agni's halls.

"Spread out. It's the knife girl. Pin her down."

Instinctively, Jian grabbed a stone knickknack and tossed it at the left temple of one of the enemy.

"You killed Due…I will cripple you _girl_. I will take great pleasure in gutting you and feeding you alive to the catgators."

With a trademarked, yawn of boredom that Jian would practice a lot in his next life, Jian dashed towards the next enemy. He kicked out and contacted the back of her foe's ankle. He twisted and performed a ridge hand to the throat. The target staggered back. Jian wanted to finish up, but there were too many foes to focus on any one of them.

They were starting to pen him into a corner. Jian had to break out.

 _The safe path is the dangerous path that always leads to a trap…_

Jian screamed his defiant…a high-pitched girly scream.

Jian started wildly slashing out with the tanto to get the foes to step back…to open more space. However, they were experienced enough in battle to know that the best tactic was to actually press forward and limit his freedom of movement.

Jian scream as a spear penetrated his left shoulder. The tanto dropped from Jian's fingers.

A young, wolf helm clad Water Tribeman stepped into the room. He pulled out a jian…a double-bladed straight sword that was used only by an experienced swordsman.

"It's knife girl…not the princess. Go after Zuko. Be careful, he does not need fire bending to be dangerous. I will take care of knife bitch. Been a long time since Ba Sing Se," he spat.

The other warriors left the room, leaving the commander behind.

"So…the mighty Sokka decides to grace us with his presence. What's the matter…no haiku?"

The once called Sokka screamed as he lashed out with his blade straight at Jian's face.

Jian side stepped the attack.

"I heard they kicked you out of the Five-Seven-Five Society…Doesn't the Water Tribes teach their children the difference between five and six. I heard that Macmu-Ling had to remove...what was it? Oh what was her line, something like 'Tittering monkey, in the spring he climbs treetops, and thinks himself tall.' Didn't anyone tell you that that stealing your daddy's sword does not make you a swordsman. I still owe you for going after my little brother. Now be a good little tribesboy. Maybe I will let you die with some dignity."

Jian would not normally banter with a foe. However, fighting for one's life was tiring and Jian needed to recover his breath. If someone was powerful to command a warband filled with much older warriors, than the foe had to be powerful…or the warband particularly stupid.

It was time to fight and live or fight and die. There was no third option…not with the three dead bodies in the room.

His left arm out of commission, Jian reached with his right arm and touched…a breast. Quickly, he slid his hand down, pulled out the last throwing dart. There was no more.

"Omashu…isn't it. I wished that I could see the look on Mommy's and Daddy's face when we freed the town. What's it like to see Daddy's career go bye-bye?"

The one call Sokka was trying to make Jian angry…stupid angry.

It was time to end the banter and let the blade decide who was going to walk away from this fight.

Jian focused on the eyes of the foe. Blue eyes like his cousin's. However, unlike her eyes of love…these eyes radiated hate.

Jian angled left as she approached her foe. With an arm crippled and the foe being larger, there was only one avenue of attack. Jian knew it. This Sokka knew it. It would come down to two things…skill and luck.

Luck was not on Jian's side. He slid on the coppery-sticky blood and Sokka's sword entered into Jian's chest, right between the…breasts, into his heart.

Jian looked down to find the blade his namesake jian driven between his breasts.

Sharing the family ofuro with his mother, cousin, and sisters made Jian somewhat an authority on tits. Males did not have teats like the pair Jian was sporting at this moment.

"Don't worry. I will take my time before I send off your boyfriend to join you in hell!"

Jian knew that he was dying. The only thing left was to see if he could bring Sokka with him to hell. Jian lashed out with the throwing dart, but his right arm had no strength. The dart fell to the floor.

Sokka kicked Jian off the blade as he pulled the sword out of his…her chest.

Jian felt a jumble of thoughts as he was dying. Anger at the attackers, regret at not being good enough to protect the one he loved, and sadness that he did not let Zuko know about the baby.

Jian knew then that two lives ended with that sword thrust and was powerless. The only thing that waited was death and reincarnation. The sages talked about reincarnation and how love ones who died together would reincarnate as twins. These were the event of his last life and the driver behind his motivation in this life to be the best fighter. Next time, someone threatens his family, he would be powerful enough to ensure that he will be the one returning to his loved ones. He will be powerful enough to ensure that no one will ever take away his family.

Jian could only look with hate at the man who ended his last life. He memorized the killer's face as the killer drew back with his blade and separated Jian's head from her shoulders. The ceiling, walls, and floor rolled in a violent turbulent spiral.

The enemy turned around, walked out the door, and nodded to another.

"Why did you kill the bitch? We could have kept her as a trophy." The other voice muttered.

"Too troublesome to house break that bitch. Besides why bother with servants when we can all have a princess."

In less than thirty seconds, the world fell into darkness.

* * *

 _ **Western Earth Kingdom  
**_ _ **Li Farmstead**_

Jian Li rolled over and looked across the room at his younger brothers. They were too young to understand…they thought of games, playing, and having fun. They did not understand that they had to become strong. Life was not fun. Life was a struggle against an inevitable death. The only reason to fight rather than surrender was to protect those you loved. This was Jian's family and he would gladly trade his life to protect any one of them.

The fire within Jian's heart told the young lad that it was far too close to sunrise to think about falling asleep again. Fire benders woke up with the sun.

However, father would say there was no law saying that fire benders had to face the morning sun with glee. The Li family was living proof that not all fire benders just love to see the sunrise. They could and would write volumes of the injustice of the fire bender's slavery to waking up with the sun. They all hated not having the option of sleeping in. Mother, the only non-bender in the family, simply kick father out of bed just so that she could just sleep in that little bit longer.

 _One hour…just one more hour._

Jian Li hated the little injustices of the world.

No hatred was a little too strenuous at this time.

No, Jian Li merely seethed at the world. Why couldn't he just have the ability to sleep in at least one morning of the month?

Sleep being a non-option, Jian quickly looked down to make sure that he was still a guy and changed into his work clothing. If he could not sleep in, he could, at least, get his chores done early so maybe he could get to sleep a little earlier tonight. He was still a growing young man and growing young men needed their sleep.

The fifteen-year-old staggered outside, silently cursing the cold, damp, pre-morning air. It was a good fifty yards towards the chicken-pig pens.

It was time to feed the _stupid_ creatures, grab the eggs, and leave the shit detail to his younger siblings. He dropped the necessary seeds into the feeding pail. He deftly pulled out the eggs from under the sleeping sows-hens and deposited them into the basket. He then walked up to the rooster-pig.

He smiled…no, he _smirked_.

He listened to his inner voice urging him to become the avatar of divine justice.

The thought of doing the gods' work filled the Jian's normally dark and melancholy soul with glee…the grinch's kind of glee as one's heart shrank two sizes smaller kind of glee.

Jian Li gave into the voice of inner darkness as he kicked the rooster-pig so that the rooster-pig would wake up the universe…or at least the Li household.

All was right with the world when you walked up everyone in the Li household before the sun rises.

Twelve sets of eyes looked at Jian with hate as he walked in with the eggs while humming a happy, working tune that mum use to hum when he was a kid learning to read and write. If Jian was not getting anymore sleep, well he was going to share the blessing with the family.

 _Early to bed,_

 _Early to rise,_

 _Makes a man,_

 _Healthy, wealthy, and wise._

Agni decided that that Jian Li had too much _fun_ this morning. Waking up the kids was his duty as the eldest son. But, waking up mother and father with the chicken-pig racket ensured that he would suffer the ultimate punishment.

Taking the girls shopping at the town market.

 _Never in the course of human events did repeatedly driving one's head unto an iron spike seem so tempting._

It would be far more pleasurable to castrate oneself with a dull shovel.

The iron maiden would be like a queen's mattress in terms of comfort.

Being a non-bender doused in lamp oil at an Agni Kai would be merciful.

No torture cold be as cruel, as agonizing, as babysitting six girls shopping. These girls were not just any girls but his cousin and sisters. The worst was his twin sister, Lian Li…the only female in existence that could out air-head their mother.

He begged, "Please father, you need me to help load up the next tea shipment. Anything but…"

Father would have no part of it. The bastard actually smiled. For father to smile so brightly foretold a saga of pain and misery.

"You are going to be the head of the family someday and it's time to act like a man. I do not want to see sniveling, crying, or you having a pity party. I do not want to hear moaning, groaning, whining, or whimpering. Suck it up. You will help me by taking your sisters shopping. I have a lot to do before we take the next shipment to Ba Sing Se. Keep your siblings busy and out from under my feet."

Jian looked for a knife, hell, even a dull, rusty spoon would end the pain.

The girls of the Li family looked at their chaperone with a promising glare. They were not going to let their erring chaperone get anywhere near that steel spike and end the misery.

Jian wondered how bad things would get.

His twin sister, Lian, confirmed the misery index when she opened her mouth, "I believe that our auras need to be refreshed. I know, we should match our clothing to the auras we want. I want pink. Yin should go with yellow.

The other girls joined in the conversation.

Jian confirmed hell was not a place of everlasting fire and brimstone. Hell was being trapped in a seamstress' shop with six girls wall color coordinating their clothing with their auras. There was only one way out… _seppuku_. Knowing his cousin Ying, she would be along to ensure that he would not be able to commit seppuku with the tailor's shears.

The worst part of this morning's events was father not bothering the hide the fact that he was enjoying his son's misery. Even mother was laughing at him. Agni was not known for being a merciful god…but this was far too much…even for the goddess of pain, suffering, and misery.

 _It could not get any worse than this…_

Then the girls started talking about clothing accessories as father handed Cousin Ying a hefty coin pouch.

Father smiled as he announced the finisher, "Do not worry about getting back home tonight. Just stay at the inn and come back the next day. Take the boys too. I heard there is a new confectioner in town and that he makes the biggest, sweet dumplings.

Images of eight children, five girls and three boys, all on a two-day sugar high got Jian Li contemplating that joys of celibacy and monastic life. The problem was to join a monastic order, Jian has to be an eunuch (the easy part) and an earth-bender. Since it was a time of relative peace, the Earth Kingdom would actually check his age if Jian ran away and tried to enlist. The circus was also out since mom knew many of the ringmasters. They would not let Jian run away from home. There was no escape from this hell.

Father was damning him to the tenth circle of hell.

Even old Fire Lord Ozai seemed to be merciful with his son that Jian's father was. A burn to the face and exile would be a cake walk compare to dealing with eight kids. Why couldn't father keep his pecker in his pants and stop after two or three?

Jian could not take it anymore. It was time to end it all. Jian walked to the nearest pillar started banging his head against it to end it all if not at least give himself a concussion.

"Jian, why are your hitting your head on a piller," cooed his twin Lian, "It's not so bad…Dad's talking to Wook's father about a wedding."

Nightmares about being a girl and getting stabbed in the chest had nothing on shopping, babysitting kids on a sugar high, and getting hitch to the village wagon and the most annoying creature in the universe.

* * *

 _ **Southern Water Tribe  
**_ _ **Pre-dawn**_

No…no…not again.

Ming hated the nightmares.

She was three and mother had to work.

"Mommy, don't go…"

"Shush…Ming, I have to work. Otherwise we don't eat."

Three-year-old Ming grabbed unto her mother. If she let go, the monster would get her.

Mother pulled Ming away as Ming screamed, "Mommy, stay. I be good. I don't pee. No go."

Mother pinned Ming down and walked away. She locked the door so Ming could not escape and stop mother from leaving.

Ming cried until she fell asleep.

The click of the door opened up.

It was not mother. It was a stranger.

Ming screamed, but mother did not come.

The stranger hit Ming and shouted at her to keep quiet. The more Ming screamed the more the stranger kept hitting her.

Finally, the stranger took his fist and hit Ming so hard that she blacked out.

She woke up to find mother crying. The stranger laughed at mother and daughter.

"You shouldn't leave your daughter alone, Ms. Bei Fong."

The stranger was taunting mother. Ming attempted to understand was being said, but she could not understand or remember the words.

However, the trauma would ensure that the child would forever remembered the stranger. He was tall, wore fancy clothing, and looked at her like an accountant looked as a ledger. There was a lot of talking, but the child would remember the last phrase out of the stranger's mouth.

"Thirty silver li. Maybe fifty if she is _trained_."

Three-year-old Ming didn't understand why the stranger was looking at her as if she was money. Not then…

Fifteen-year-old woke up with the urge to take a day long bath.

She vowed for the hundredth time to kill herself rather than become a commodity for some pimp. She was free. She was not a slave. She practiced her sword katas everyday so that no one would take away her freedom and sell her.

Ming looked under her pillow. While she didn't have a sword, she kept two knives, sharpened and ready…just in case.

She would not go down without a fight.

* * *

 _ **Earth Kingdom  
**_ _ **The Chamber**_

Park Kyung-Ah bowed before the image of the Great Mother and chanted.

 _Let the love of the Great Mother infuse me,  
_ _Let her love surround me,  
_ _Let her grace banish my fears.  
_ _Let her grace inspire me,_

 _I thank the Great Mother for birthing me,  
_ _I thank the Great Mother for mothering me,  
_ _I thank the Great Mother for uplifting me,  
_ _I thank the Great Mother for blessing me._

 _Let me be an instrument of her will,  
_ _Let me be an instrument of her infinite mercy,  
_ _Let me be an instrument of her compassion,  
_ _Let me be an instrument of her will_.

The gong sounded marking the fifth silence of the day.

Park Kyung-Ah could not remember much of her life before the Mistress rescued her.

From her stretch marks, she knew that she was once a mother.

From seeing her features reflected in a still pool of water, her ancestors were from the Fire Nation.

From her nightmares, she knew that she endured rape and probably a prostitute.

From her fits, she knew that she was once mad.

For ten years, Kyung-Ah lived at the nunnery under the care of the Mistress of Shadows.

 _Oh, Great Mother, I bow to you,  
_ _You are the source, the One that gives birth to all.  
_ _You slay the demons that threaten your children,  
_ _You destroy the army of mind-born delusions,  
_ _The demons that separate us from the Divine and our true Self._

 _To others, Mother may strike terror.  
_ _To ourselves, She is our supremely beautiful Beloved,  
_ _Performing Her ballet of incomparable grace,  
_ _Overwhelming us with love._

 _Mother can never be understood by intellect and logic.  
_ _She is the essence of what is beyond the mind.  
_ _To know Her, we must dive into Her radiant darkness,  
_ _We must face fear and willingly dissolve our being,_

 _In Her midnight embrace.  
_ _We must drink madness,  
_ _We must dance in Her light,  
_ _We must accept Her wounds,  
_ _We must embrace Her pains,  
_ _We must endure Her humiliations._

 _Mother, I willingly give myself to You,  
_ _As You willingly gave birth to me.  
_ _Make me the executor of Your will.  
_ _So, shall it be forever_.

It was time for the choosing. There were no bars, no locks, no guards keeping her in this place. There was only peace, contentment, and love. Here Mistress and Kyung-Ah's sisters saved her from the demons and gave her peace.

Kyung-Ah made her decision. She would join the Sisters of the Shadowed Veil and spend the rest of her days in service to the Great Mother.

At the end of the fifth silence, Kyung-Ah approached the Mistress' door and knelt on the small stones to wait for Mistress' invitation to enter.

Kyung-Ah did not know how long she waited.

"Come in, Kyung-Ah," Mistress commanded.

Mistress was in the shadows.

Kyung-Ah walked on her knees and kow tow, touching her head nine times to the cold stone floor, once for each orifice in the human body. She then paused and touched her head once more in honor of the tenth orifice that marked the ability for motherhood.

Mistress remained mute.

Kyung-Ah could not wait anymore,

She wailed, "Mistress, please let me be with you and my sisters forever. I am not worthy…However, say the words and I will serve forever."

Mistress walked to the wailing supplicant.

"Kyung-Ah, you have tasted of the Mother's love. However, to be a vessel of her grace, you have to suffer pain and degradation. You have to face and accept the demons that haunted your past. You have to perform acts that to outsiders proclaim hatred. During your final training, you will have separated from our Divine Mother's Grace. Once we leave this room, Kyung-Ah will be dead…as ashes before a strong breeze."

Kyung-Ah was filled with joy as she surrendered the last of her freedom. Gladly she walked on her knees as Mistress lead her down the hallway to an iron door.

"Inside will be the first demons you will face. You will face the lost of your newfound innocence. Leave your garments here and remember Mother's love as enter the room. If you fill yourself with her love, their hated may mark your body, but will never touch your soul. However, if your faith in Her Love falters for even a heartbeat. Your madness will return, never to be broken. There is only one way out of this room. In one moon, you will endure a test to see if you are worthy to enter the next chamber.

"Novice Park Kyung-Ah is dead. In one moon…we shall see her next reincarnation."

The door opened into an unlit room.

"Go inside and drink the tea. Then wait."

"Wait for what, mistress?"

"Your worse nightmares…pain, humiliation, and if you keep Mother's Love in your heart, enlightenment."

Kyung-Ah entered the room and prepared for her death as she drank the tea.

The door closed and an iron bar dropped.

Mistress walked away from the door with a smile.

It was too easy. It was like breaking a puppy.

Mistress remembered her breaking under the cold gaze of Azula and the Dai Li. Now it was time to repay the favor.

Mistress savored the screams of the novice as she lingered by the cell. Mistress remembered her screams at the hands of Azula. She remembered the Dai Li breaking her of the will to live. She remembered the beatings, starvation, and rape. She remembered that it was only her hated that kept her sane enough to turn the tables on her captors.

She laughed as she became the shadow queen. She laughed as her foes fell.

Mistress look fondly at the door. This acolyte was her special project. Ten years of conditioning…ten years of manipulating her emotions…ten years of slowly rebuilding a broken, wretched being into a useful tool. This Joo Dee would bear watching. This _Joo Dee_ would be the tool that the Mistress would use to guarantee her control over the levers of power.

 _Azula, you will soon see the student become mightier than the master._

Mistress suppressed her smile. She had a slowly selected and built up her corp of Joo Dee's. The Dai Li used numbers. Mistress selected her Joo Dee's for their talents.


	6. Catching a Legend

**Successors to the Blue Spirit: Catching a Legend  
** **By Violent Vi (Rebooted)**

* * *

 **A/N:** I am looking for a beta reader. If you are interested, please PM me.

* * *

 _ **Earth Kingdom  
**_ _ **New Gaipan Village  
**_ _ **Jiang Rong Inn and Tea House  
**_ _ **Midmorning**_

Chen Kun wore an immaculately cleaned and starched changshan as he sat at the inn sipping his Drum Mountain White Cloud tea. On the table was his red, silver, and gold tasseled hat that proclaimed him a twelveth-grade civil servant and thus equivalent to a military captain or naval lieutenant.

To the locals, Chen was a minor government official who was sent in to replace Old Man Wu when Wu retired. Chen was not a young man. Most men in his position would be in their twenties, sons of rich or noble families. Instead, Chen in his late forties, thin, and wore spectacles. He bore the hallmarks of a commoner who climbed up the ranks on raw talent. They would never climb to the top three elite civil service ranks, but would instead be the mid-level bureaucrats that got the work done.

Like other civil servants, Chen would go around, perform his tasks, take small bribes…in short, he acted like the thousands of other minor government employees stationed throughout the Earth Kingdom. Corrupt, but only minorly so in keeping with his station as a scribe for the Bureau of Internal Statistics.

What many in the Earth Kingdom, even government employees, did not know was that the Secret Police was a hidden unit inside the Bureau. Not everyone in the Bureau was or even knew that undercover police officers were Bureau civil service employees. However, every secret policeman had a cover identity and drew a salary and expense allowance as an employee of the Bureau.

The Bureau of Internal Statistics was the best place to hide a secret policeman.

The Bureau was everywhere. It has hundreds, if not thousands, of scribes, accountants, and auditors who existed to spend their days talking to people while taking a continuous census of everything that could be of interest to the Earth Kingdom. If you wanted to know a specific farmer's harvest in a certain remote village from over two hundred years ago, the answer would be somewhere in the Bureau's internal files.

The Bureau's researchers were everywhere asking questions from everyone. They were the scribes and nameless accountants that measured everything from birthrates and death rates to the exact quantity and consistency of fecal matter produced by the nation's chicken-pigs. Everyone viewed them as harmless wonks who would write up meaningless reports and take small bribes.

What the Bureau did not know was that Chen was the last of the infamous Dai Li.

Chen could not recall his birth name.

Chen could not recall whether or not he had any parents or siblings.

Chen could barely remember a life outside of the Dai Li.

Chen could remember was coming into Ba Sing Se with a band of refugees fleeing the Fire Nation and begging on the streets. He was six or seven when the Dai Li Daymaster spotted his potential and had him kidnapped off the alleys of the lower city.

To this day, Chen did not know why the Dai Li conscripted him into their ranks. He would admit to himself that he was never the best earth bender. At best, he was moderately talented at _rock flinging_. He was more likely to be a thief than an earth bending champion.

Yet the former Dai Li recalled the training.

It was harsh, brutal, effective. It transformed a boy whose dreams once were of being the best earth football striker in Ba Sing Se into a deadly enforcer of order.

Stealth, precision, and vigilance were his tenants. Rock gloves, shoes, and surveyor chains were his weapons. Kidnapping, assassination, betrayal, terror, and brainwashing where the norms that governed his life.

Of the five boys in the 'hand' or initial training cohort who started with him, only he survived. At twelve, his final test was to survive the hunt against the four older, more powerful benders of his training cohort. He drew the black stone. They drew the green jade. His instructors had stacked the deck against him.

Chen was given one hundred beats of a drum to run down the tunnels before the four others hunted him down. To win, he had to kill the other boys in his cohort. To live, Chen had to kill the trainer in such a way that the death looked like an unfortunate accident.

The young trainee was not supposed to live and yet he did. He claimed his place in the ranks of the Dai Li in the traditional manner. Soon, Chen earned a reputation among the ranks for his effectiveness in undercover operations. The training masters knew that Chen killed the instructor, but he did so according to the unwritten laws that governed the order.

An instructor who could not protect himself from one of the _expendable students whose only function was to act as a living target for the others to be bloodied_ did not deserve any pity. A trainer was supposed to know everything about his charges and be watchful for the cunning ones like Chen who kept their skills hidden.

At thirteen, Chen was officially _welcomed_ into the Dai Li as an official _trainee_. Eight more years of further brutal training sought to remove any consideration of compassion. Emotions were a tool to be used against the foe. Caring a liability.

However, Chen was different. He still had feelings. He hid his emotions well, but unlike the stoic majority, Chen acknowledge them and used them to give him the passion to push through his physical limitations and become something greater than his peers.

Being different, Chen endured the harshest training program that the Dai Li inflicted on its aspirants. He endured many conditioning sessions designed to break him or kill him. Frigid cloth, scorching heat, ice water, flame, hard stone, sand were all familiar to the Dai Li trainee. He had killed several more of his training cohort, Not out of blood-lust, but rather necessity. The senior Dai Li did not trust a free thinker like Chen. However, there were traditions. Instructors could not directly target a specific candidate. However, if a candidate died as a result of over-enthusiastic training...it was a regrettable necessity...the cost of building an elite defend of Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage.

At twenty-one, he earned his place in the ranks as a brother in the ranks by hunting down and killed a senior Dai Li agent who had gone rogue.

Unlike the others who worked in pairs, Chen, by fate and by choice, worked alone. No one trusted Chen to be their partner and Chen was glad to work alone.

Chen was always the odd turtle-duck who swam away from the herd.

Unlike other cadets, he was a freeborn and was not brought up in the multi-generational eugenics programs that the Earth Kingdom engaged in to breed superior earth benders. His mind was different than the others, despite the repeated hypnotherapy sessions, Chen never forgot that he was underdog who would survive and eventually become the alpha in charge.

Chen had served the Kuei the 52nd Earth King at Bang Sing Se. He had served the Grand Secretariat Long Feng. He had served Princess Azula of the Fire Nation and watched her descent into madness, even before Sokka the Destroyer completed the breaking of the Fire Nation. He spent seven years in the death cells awaiting his execution. However, the rise of the Blue Spirit spared him and a few of his comrades the death sentence they earned.

For now, the Earth Kingdom had power and the Dai Li followed whomever had the most power. To outsiders, the Dai Li were a monolithic organization that never show any signs of fracturing. Inside, individuals were engaged in Byzantine plots for individual advancement and power, or in his case, mere survival. He survived seventeen official sanctioned, _authorized_ attempts on his life. He killed the assassin and then later killed the rival who sought his death.

The Dai Li was perhaps the greatest group of earth benders ever assembled. Toph Bei Fong was once the best individual bender. However, the Dai Li could fight a thousand champions like the Bei Fongs and as long as they did so collectively…defeat the champion. An ancient Dai Li commander once noted that quantity has a quality all its own.

Chen has survived the Blue Spirit's ambush of the Dai Li. Not due to Chen skill, but rather due to accidental food poisoning. Fate ensured that Chen was at a healer's clinic instead of accompanying the others when they ambushed the Blue Spirit. Fate had spared him and tonight he would repay the favor.

Chen knew better than to return back to the Earth King empty handed. Instead he changed his identity and purchased a minor position in the Bureau of Internal Statistics until he became a Senior Field Examiner and headed a small four-man examination team.

Chen had carefully infiltrated the village.

For eight years, he tracked down the Blue Spirit to New Gaipan Village. It was the perfect place for the fugitive he was hunting. The citizens of New Gaipan Village were survivors of an Earth Kingdom resistance scheme to destroy their village. The Avatar and an old Fire Nation citizen saved the people village from Jet and his band of Freedom Fighters.

New Gaipan Village was one of the few areas that outlawed slavery and would free any former Fire Nation citizen that entered it borders. They turned a blind eye to the number of its _citizens_ that had the features of former Fire Nation citizens. On paper, Gaipan was a logging village. In actuality, it was one of the hotbeds for smuggling between the Earth Kingdom, the Swamp Tribes, and the remnants of the Fire Nation. It would be a good place for any fire bender who needed to hide from the authorities.

Chen politely nodded at the inn keeper. Chen knew that the inn keeper was a fire bender. He saw the inn keeper fire bending tea to the perfect temperature. The inn keeper knew that Chen knew about the tea and exactly how it was kept perfectly warm. However, all sides knew that Chen would not give up the easy life of being out in the countryside to return back to the city. Being out in the countryside meant that Chen could keep more of bribes he collected rather than remitting it upwards to his bosses.

Chen silently thanked the innkeeper and left a few coins on the table before leaving the inn's tea room. He saw the eldest son of Li, the tea merchant, delivering a crate of tea, followed by a horde of children.

 _Good…less bodies in the way._

Chen would visit Li tonight. He would get his prize. Today, would be the last day he would be stuck in this no name village. Tonight, he would capture the infamous Blue Spirit. He would capture the Fire Lord in Exile, Zuko, son of Ozai.

However, Chen remembered his training…his experience. Planning was necessary, but the enemy always had a vote in how the plan unfolded. Earth benders aspire to be rigid like the unyielding walls of Ba Sing Se. However, rigidity was an illusion that only the stupid embraced. Better to be like sand, flow around your opponent, untouchable and yet be able to suffocate them as you wear them down.

If things went wrong, today would be Chen's last day. The former Dai Li looked up at the sun. Seven years on death row taught Chen to appreciate the little things that many take for granted.

Duty commanded him to act, but Chen would act later when the odds were in his favor.

Instead of rushing to the Li farmstead, Chen would return home, kiss his wife, a former Joo Dee from Ba Sing Se, and play earth football with his five-year-old son, Lei. If today was going to be his last, at least he could tell the gods that while he died for duty, he lived for his family.

On the way home, Chen looked at the news bulletin at the scores.

The Upper Ring Capitals lost two to three against the Lower Ring Wallrunners. Apparently, the Wallrunners' forward Yung Yasuhito has stolen the inbound pass from the Capitals mid-fielder Kim Bo-Kyum and kicked it out to the Wallrunner's elite striker Park Ji Sung for the assist just seconds before stoppage time ended.

Chen smiled…he had just won twelve silver li from Yin Fu.

He remembered playing with Yung Yasuhito's father and uncles as a child in the alleys of the outer rings. If life were different, Chen wondered…which team would he play for… The Upper Ring Capitals paid more but their game plan was too methodical for his tastes. The Lower Ring Wallrunners were wild…unpredictable…more _Chenlike_. Chen imagined himself in the number 9 grey and green jersey playing striker. He could imagine the cheers as he kicked in the game winning goal.

 _If wishes were ostrich-horses, we all die, drowning in a mountain of shit. I have a job to do…it's time to get back to work._

Who would suspect that an elite Dai Li operative was such an earth football fanatic and family man.

* * *

 _ **Southern Water Tribe  
**_ _ **Sokka Office  
**_ _ **Noon**_

Sokka hated politics.

As the Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe for the past sixteen years, Sokka quickly mastered the art of back stabbing and double dealing. This was not out of curiosity, but rather necessity.

Any signs of weakness and the other nations will gang up on you.

For a lad that once thought that being a warrior was the pinnacle of manliness, Sokka became a scholar and an expert in the history of many nations. He memorized the 16,000 characters of the _Spring and Autumn Annals of the Fire Nation_. He studied the _Commentaries of Zuo, Gongyang, Guliang, and Gongyang_ that expounded on the Spring and Autumn Annuals. He devoured the seven military classics of the Earth Kingdom, Tan Daoji's _Thirty-Six Strategies_ , and twenty-four histories covering the various dynasties that once ruled the Earth Kingdom.

He would grudgingly admit to becoming quite the scholar. Being a leader was not about muscle size, but rather being cagey and knowing when to act, to resist, or to wait for the opportune moment.

However, today would not be a day of reflection. Today, he had to cast off his eldest daughter into the turbulent waters of international politics. He had so much to do and so little time to prepare her. Odd were that he would not see her for years, if ever.

"Ming Bei Fong, I hereby recognize you as the eldest daughter of Toph Bei Fong and the eldest child of Sokka, Chieftain of the Water Tribe…"

Ming gasped in shock as her dream came true.

"Yes, Ming, I am legitimizing you and your siblings as my children."

"Suki, is going to shit a brick!" the fifteen-year-old gushed out in joy.

Sokka suppressed a memory. It was like seeing his little sister again. He remembered Katara bouncing around in joy after her first successful penguin sled ride down the hill.

"Yes, Suki has already informed me in great detail about the size, make up, and hardness of the brick. However, enough about her."

Ming was about to bounce like she had not since she was six. Sokka remembered when Ming and a bunch of the Fire Nation slave children had raided the Southern Water Tribe's sugar stash.

"Ming, it's not all fun and games – there is a price to being the daughter of a Chieftain. Your life has just ceased to be your own."

Ming stopped bouncing in joy and started to panic, "Father, are you going to marry me off?"

Sokka shook his head, "No…we are the Southern Water Tribe. We will never breed our daughters like cattle the way the Northern Tribe does. It almost happened to your great-grandmother, Kanna. She fled here to avoid being a brood mare."

Sokka almost spat out the next statement in hate. "No, I rather face the King of Hell with only a bucket of water than to marry one of my daughters for politics. No, there is something that only you can do. You will have to leave the Southern Water Tribe for a long time."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sokka knew that he had just earned another ass kicking session from Katara when he finally caught up with her in the afterlife. While technically not a line, there was no way that the Earth King would resist the opportunity to solidify an alliance with the Southern Water Tribe and integrate a strong earth bending bloodline into the Ba Sing Se royal family.

"But father, mother needs me."

"Your mother has your brother Kim Anh and your little sisters who can help her while you are gone. I personally will make sure your mother is well taken care of."

Sokka looked his daughter in the eye, "You can best help your mother by going to the Earth Kingdom and complete a simple mission for me. Once you complete it, the Earth King is going to grant you and your family enough wealth to reseed the Bei Fong name and fortune. Imagine being able to return to Gaoling and see the cherry blossoms bloom on your ancestral home. Imagine being able to return your mother back to her childhood home. Imagine going to lands where the only place you see ice is in a dessert or cold drink."

Ming was not fully convinced, but Sokka had set the trap and baited it with Ming dreams. He looked at his daughter's face as she weighed the possibilities and drawbacks. Ming's face scrunched in a way that Katara's face once did when she was deep in thought.

 _Good, cautious, Ming is a survivor and in due time a capable player_. _If she was a son, she would definitely be my heir._ _If only my sons were half as good, I would not worry about the Tribe the day I retire from this desk and take on my next role as a fisherman_.

 _Besides, it's time to make things right. I'm not getting any younger. Also, Dae-Song should stop being a spoiled lazy whiner and whip himself into shape if he did not believe that his place as the heir-apparent is certain. Kim Anh does better in his studies, works harder, and practices his sword forms. The Tribe cannot afford an incompetent as Chieftain. Only by showing strength, can we prevent the others from seeing just how weak we really are._

The scrunch vanished from Ming's face. She looked up at him like Katara use to when she was three and Sokka use to make her beg for her favorite seal jerky treat.

Sokka suppressed the memories. Azula and her traitorous Dai Li killed his sister. Nothing would bring her back. Besides, it is only natural that Ming would have inherited some resemblance and mannerisms from her aunt Katara.

 _Katara, I know when it's my turn on the wheel, I bet you will be waiting to kick my ass. There is not much I can do for Ming. I cannot risk conflict with Kyoshii nor the half dozen other Earth Kingdom fiefdoms if I made things right. If it was just me that would suffer, I would do so._

 _However, it's the entire Southern Water Tribe that will pay the price if I falter. It's only my reputation for being brutal with my enemies and the traditional alliances that Kyoshii maintained that keep the Northern Water Tribe from turning us into its protectorate. This is the best I can do._

 _I know it's like taunting a starving seal pup with a fish and then kicking it when it finally approaches. However, Ming will have a chance to build a life of her own life, become something better than the bastard daughter of a has-been, broken-down Water Tribe idiot._

Sokka held out an ivory scroll case sealed with purple ribbon and a wax seal.

"I hereby grant my eldest daughter the title of Ason and appoint her as Second Secretary to the staff of the Southern Water Tribe's ambassador to the Earth Kingdom and special envoy. Her authority will be valid in the Earth Kingdom and any other points as her duties dictate."

Ming had a genuine smile as she took the scroll case. Sokka could almost see Katara's smile on Ming's face. He quickly schooled his face to hide his troubled thoughts.

"Here is your letter of credence. I have already received the Earth King's response. He has agreed to your appointment as Second Secretary to the Southern Water Tribe diplomatic mission. In three weeks, you will depart on the morning tide on the Lady Kya. Until then, your mother and I will be teaching you everything we know about the Earth Kingdom."

"Ming this is your chance to make thing right…if not for you, do it for your mother."

Sokka felt dirty as he suckered his child into a fool's bet. The only consolation was that he was not as bad as Fire Lord Ozai. He did not burn his child and send its on a fool's quest. All she would have to do is spend a few years tracking a shadow and if she found it, let the nearest Earth Kingdom garrison take all the risk of capturing the Blue Spirit.

 _Tonight, I'm going to get seriously shit-faced_.

* * *

 _ **Earth Kingdom  
**_ _ **Li Homestead  
Midnight**_

Li woke up with a gasp.

 _Danger approaching._

However, Li's instincts were too slow. An earth bender had captured Li and his wife. The surveyor's chains and stone bindings told him that this capture was a master earth bender. If this one was not Dai Li, then was at least an earth bender on par with one.

"Crown Prince…no…I believe it's now…Fire Lord Zuko. Your Majesty, I am Senior Inspector Chen Kun of the Earth Kingdom Secret Police Force. I apologize for waking you up so rudely. It seems that there is standing imperial warrant for your arrest. There are numerous charges pending against you…most of which carry the death penalty.

"Before you protest, the law is quite clear. You did not arrive in the Earth Kingdom on a diplomatic passport. Therefore, under international convention, you cannot claim diplomatic immunity. Since the Fire Nation is no longer a sovereign power, you cannot exert the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Due to your expertise in fire bending, fighting, and history of repeatedly escaping from captivity, I, _regretfully_ , had to treat you as I would any prisoner of the highest escape risk."

 _Oh, gods no…What will…_

"Do not worry. There is currently no warrant out for one Duchess Ty Li of the Fire Nation. The only reason she is being currently restrained is for the safety for her upcoming child. As for any other children you may or may not have, I did not see any children inside the house at the time of arrest, and therefore do not have to report any speculation as to the existence of any other child. If you agree to play nice, at least until I successfully deliver you to the garrison at Yu Shui Zhai, then I see no reason for me to put down any speculations that I may or may not have. I too am a family man. I do not hold children responsible for the sins of their father."

If Li was still Zuko…if he did not have nearly two decades of fate beating the defiance of out of him…if Chen did not hold the fates of his children over his head, Li would have fought. Zuko would have fought regardless of the consequences. Li carefully mulled over the police inspector…no senior inspector's words.

 _Message received. I'll be a good little prisoner until Yu Shui Zhai._


End file.
